Press Release | June 17, 2005

WWII Missing In Action Soldiers Identified (Puckett, Brown)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of two U.S. Army soldiers, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and returned to their families for burial.

They are Sergeant John T. Puckett, Wichita, Kan., and Private Earnest E. Brown, Bristol, Va. Puckett will be buried tomorrow at the Ardennes American Cemetery, Neupre, Belgium. Brown was buried last week near Bristol, Va.

On January 15, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge, Puckett and Brown were searching for German soldiers in a wooded area near Elsenborn, Belgium. They were ambushed and came under intense enemy machine gun and mortar fire. Eyewitnesses indicated they were killed, but their bodies could not be recovered due to enemy activity.

Following the war, remains of American soldiers were recovered and identified, but not those of Puckett and Brown. Then in 1992, two Belgian nationals located and excavated an abandoned fighting position in the forest east of Elsenborn. They recovered remains and other evidence and turned them over to U.S. authorities in Europe.

Scientists of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to identify the remains as those of Puckett and Brown.

Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts, 78,000 are from World War II.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169

Press Release | May 27, 2005

Vietnam War Missing In Action Serviceman Identified (Adams)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial.

He is U.S. Air Force First Lieutenant Lee A. “Larry” Adams of Willits, Calif. A memorial service with full military honors will be held at Beale AFB, Calif. on June 1, and he will be buried in Willits at a later date.

On April 19, 1966, Adams was attacking enemy targets in Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam when he rolled his F-105 Thunderchief in on the target. As other pilots in the flight watched, his plane failed to pull out of the dive, crashed and exploded.

U.S. specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) conducted a number of investigations as they sought information on Lt Adams’ loss. In September 1993, joint U.S.-Vietnamese team members interviewed three villagers who said they witnessed the shootdown in 1966. They led the team to a supposed crash site, but no aircraft debris or human remains were found. Another informant turned over a skeletal fragment he had found near the site of the crash.

In October 1994 another joint team interviewed two other Vietnamese citizens who recalled the shootdown and the burial of the remains of a pilot nearby. A third team reinterviewed four Vietnamese in 1998 who had supplied information earlier.

Then in November 2004, a joint team excavated the suspected burial and crash sites, but found neither aircraft debris nor other material evidence. However, a villager living nearby gave the team a fragment of a wristwatch and a signal mirror he claimed to have recovered from the crash site. The wristwatch and mirror are consistent with items issued to, or used by, U.S. military aviators in the mid-1960s.

Scientists of the JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to identify the remains as those of Adams.

Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts, 1,833 are from the Vietnam War, with 1,397 of those within the country of Vietnam. Another 750 Americans have been accounted for in Southeast Asia since the end of the war. Of the Americans identified, 524 are from within Vietnam.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.

Press Release | April 25, 2005

Vietnam War Missing in Action Servicemen Identified (Ahlmeyer, Tycz, Sharp, Miller)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of four U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

They are Marine 2nd Lt. Heinz Ahlmeyer Jr. of Pearl River, N.Y.; Marine Sgt. James N. Tycz of Milwaukee, Wis.; Marine Lance Cpl. Samuel A. Sharp Jr. of San Jose, Calif.; and Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Malcolm T. Miller of Tampa, Fla. Ahlmeyer, Tycz, and Miller will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on May 10. Sharp was buried Saturday in San Jose and will be honored at the Arlington ceremony.

The four men were part of a reconnaissance patrol operating near the U.S. Marine base in Khe Sanh, Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. They came under enemy attack shortly after midnight on May 10, 1967, while occupying a defensive position. During the firefight Ahlmeyer, Tycz, Sharp and Miller were killed. The patrol’s surviving members were rescued by helicopter later that morning but the bodies of the four men could not be recovered.

In the fall of 1991 several Vietnamese citizens visited the U.S. POW/MIA office in Hanoi claiming to have access to the remains of U.S. servicemen. One of the men provided skeletal and teeth fragments.

Between 1993 and 2004, eight joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) interviewed witnesses and surveyed the skirmish area. Two other joint teams conducted excavations during which material evidence and remains were recovered. After extensive analysis, scientists from JPAC identified Ahlmeyer, Tycz, Sharp and Miller.

Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts, 1,835 are from the Vietnam War, with 1,398 of those within the country of Vietnam. Another 748 Americans have been accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpm o or call (703) 699-1169.

Press Release | April 11, 2005

WWII Missing In Action Serviceman Identified (McKee)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. Army Air Forces crewman have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with military honors.

Staff Sergeant Robert W. McKee of Garvey, Calif., will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on April 12.

On Dec. 17, 1944, McKee was an aerial gunner on an 11-member crew of a B-24L Liberator that took off from Pantanella, Italy, on a mission to bomb enemy targets near Blechhammer, Germany. The aircraft crashed over Hungary, near the small towns of Böhönye and Felsosegesd, with the loss of two crewmen including McKee. The other nine were able to safely parachute from the aircraft. Following the war, the remains of the other unaccounted-for crewman were found in a cemetery in Felsosegesd.

Following the war, remains from an American aircraft crash near Vienna, Austria, were found buried with McKee’s military identification tag. But the remains were identified as those of another flyer. Further analysis revealed that McKee had flown on the same plane and had lost his identification tag, most likely on that aircraft.

In 1992 an undertaker recovered remains believed to be those of an American in the Böhönye, Hungary, cemetery but they could not be associated with a specific incident. But in 2003, DPMO analysts obtained information from a Hungarian researcher which indicated that the remains might be associated with McKee’s loss. Aerial gunner’s wings were found in the grave, as well as other items worn by U.S. bomber crews in 1944.

Scientists of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used a number of forensic tools inc luding mitochondrial DNA to confirm Staff Sergeant McKee’s identity, matching his DNA with that of two known maternal relatives.

Of the 88,000 Americans missing from all conflicts, 78,000 are from World War II.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo, or call 703-699-1169.

Press Release | March 25, 2005

Missing In Action Serviceman Identified (Trembley)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. Navy pilot, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Navy Lieutenant Commander J. Forrest G. Trembley of Spokane, Wash., will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on April 1.

On August 21, 1967, Trembley and his fellow crewman took off in their A-6A Intruder from the U.S.S. Constellation on a strike mission against the Duc Noi rail yards near Hanoi, North Vietnam. On leaving the target area, their aircraft and another one in the flight were attacked by enemy MiGs. When last seen, the two aircraft were disappearing into the clouds near the Vietnamese-Chinese border. The last radio message from Trembley indicated the MiGs were in hot pursuit, but no further communications were heard.

Later that day, the Chinese government reported that two U.S. A-6s had been shot down over the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The broadcast noted that one of the four crewmen had been captured but the other three died in the shoot down. The surviving crewman was released by the Chinese in March 1973.

With the assistance of the Chinese government, a joint U.S.-PRC team interviewed witnesses to the shootdown and crash in 1993 and 1999. U.S. specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) interviewed a Chinese citizen near the crash site. He turned over Trembley’s identification tag and fragmentary human remains alleged to be those of American pilots. The team recovered some pilot’s gear from a burial site, but found no additional human remains.

Scientists of the JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to identify the remains as those of Trembley.

Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts, 1,836 are from the Vietnam War, with 1,399 of those within the country of Vietnam. Another 747 Americans have been accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo, or call 703-699-1169.