Slowly but surely, that resolution effort proceeds. Recovery of remains is just the first step in final resolution of a case. The remains are treated with honor during every step of the long journey from Southeast Asia to Hawaii for continuation of the identification process. Solemn ceremonies are conducted at the airport of the country of departure, with traditional military protocol and honors rendered to each returning serviceman’s remains.

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Detachment 2 personnel were privileged to participate in a ceremony on April 25, 2000, marking the repatriation of six sets of remains. The ceremony at Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport included U.S. Ambassador Douglass B. Peterson and Senator John McCain, both of whom had been prisoners of war. Peterson’s words on that occasion sum up the sense of honor and dedication of the men and women working to reach that ‘best possible accounting’ of Americans still missing in Southeast Asia: ‘Never before in the history of mankind has any nation done what we are doing.’ We can only hope that history will not require us to do it again.

Editor’s note: On April 7, 2001, a chartered helicopter carrying 16 members of an MIA search team crashed into a mountainside in Quang Binh province, about 280 miles south of Hanoi, in heavy fog. The search team members, none of whom survived, included seven Americans and nine Vietnamese who had been preparing for the excavation of several crash sites for JTF-FA on a mission that was to begin in May.

Among the seven Americans killed in the crash were both the current commander of the task force, Army Lt. Col. Rennie M. Cory, Jr., and Lt. Col. George D. ‘Marty’ Martin III, who was scheduled to take over command in July. The other Americans lost were Air Force Major Charles E. Lewis, Master Sgt. Steven L. Moser, Tech. Sgt. Robert M. Flynn, Navy Hospital Corpsman Pedro J. Gonzales and Army Sgt. 1st Class Tommy J. Murphy. The nine Vietnamese search team members included eight military officers as well as Nguyen Thanh Ha, deputy director of the Vietnamese Office for Seeking Missing Persons, Vietnam’s own MIA search group.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, this was the first fatality of American servicemen on active duty in Vietnam since the Vietnam War, and also the first loss of life in any joint recovery operation.

This article was written by Colonel John B. Haseman, U.S. Army (ret.) and originally published in the August 2001 issue of Vietnam Magazine. Colonel John B. Haseman retired from the U.S. Army in 1995. He served in Vietnam with the 9th Infantry Division in 1967-68, and in February 1973 he was one of the last advisers in Vietnam to leave the field. For additional reading, see: MIA: Accounting for the Missing in Southeast Asia, by Paul D. Mather.

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