Happy Birthday Tom!
Two helicopter Two of the seven U.S. servicemen killed in helicopter crash while searching on an exploratory mission for Vietnam War MIAs were identified as being stationed in Hawaii.
crash victims
from Hawaii
Specialists leave
By Gregg K. Kakesako
to help in aftermath
Star-BulletinThey are Master Sgt. Steven L. Moser, 38, a Vietnamese linguist with Joint Task Force-Full Accounting at its Camp Smith command operation, and Sgt. 1st Class Tommy Murphy, 38, a mortuary affairs specialist from the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory at Hickam Air Force Base.
Moser is single. Murphy is married.
The seven servicemen were among 16 people killed in the crash. Nine were Vietnamese, whose names have not been released.
The other U.S. victims were:
>> Army Lt. Col. Rennie M. Cory Jr., 43, of Fort Bragg, N.C. He was the JTF-FA outgoing Hanoi detachment commander.They were killed Saturday as members of an advance party preparing for a MIA recovery mission in Vietnam. They were all working for JTF-FA, which is headquartered at Camp Smith. JTF-FA is the key point of the U.S. effort to account for nearly 2,000 Americans who did not come home from the Vietnam War.>> Army Lt. Col. George Martin III, of Fort Drum, N.Y. Martin, 40, is a battalion commander at Fort Drum and was supposed to be in the incoming Hanoi JTF-FA detachment commander.
>> Air Force Maj. Charles E. Lewis, 36, of Naples, Italy. He was the deputy Hanoi detachment commander.
>> Chief Petty Officer Pedro Gonzales, 36, of San Diego. He was a medic.
>> Air Force Tech. Sgt. Robert M. Flynn, 35. He was a JTF-FA Vietnamese linguist.
They were considered among the best in MIA recovery operations.
Martin's parents in Hopkins, S.C. told Associated Press that Martin was a 17-year Army veteran who was to assume command of the JTF-FA detachment in Hanoi later this year. He was a Fort Drum commander battalion commander.
Martin, 40, was married for 17 years. He and his wife, Susan, have two daughters, Jessie, 14; and Katie, 11, his mother, Thelma Martin, said.
She said her son was anxious "to bring closure to the families of the people missing in Vietnam. He felt like it was a very important mission and he could make all the difference."
The bodies of the American servicemen are expected to be returned to Hawaii once they have been identified. That could occur as early as this weekend.
They were part of an advance party making logistical and other arrangements for a Vietnam recovery mission to begin May 3. Also killed were nine Vietnamese -- two members of the Vietnamese Office of Seeking Missing Persons -- three Vietnamese air crew members and four aircraft technicians.
Lt. Col. Franklin Childress, JTF-FA spokesman, said nine Hawaii-based servicemen and civilians left the islands yesterday to join 15 members of a JTF-FA crew from Laos to help with identification.
Three of the specialists from Hawaii were anthropologists and dental specialists from the Central Identification Laboratory.
The Army facility is considered the premier forensic operation in the world and has been working with JTF-FA as part of the military's efforts to recover and identify missing servicemen from the Vietnam War.
However, the Army lab also has a larger worldwide mission encompassing more than just that war.
The remains of the 16 victims were taken by ambulance to a military hospital in Hanoi. where forensic specialists will work to identify them.
Pete Peterson, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, was at the hospital in Hanoi. The 16 were riding in a Russian-made M-17 helicopter chartered from the Vietnamese military.
Childress said JTF-FA had been renting helicopters from the Vietnamese since it began its recovery operations in 1992. The pilot of the helicopter was Vietnamese. "This was the first crash that has occurred since we began," Childress said.
The crash occurred near 7 p.m. in central Vietnam 280 miles south of Hanoi. The helicopter was on its way to Hue after canceling a stop in Dong Hoi, the capital of Quang Binh province, because of bad weather.
It smashed into the side of a mountain in Bo Trach district in Quang Binh province.
Childress said no determination has been made when the excavations planned for May at six sites in Vietnam will be resumed.
Ninety-five servicemen and civilians were supposed to participate in what was the third of four Vietnam recovery operations this year.
Since JTF-FA was created in 1992, it has conducted more than 3,400 investigations and 590 recovery operations leading to repatriation of more than 500 sets of remains believed to be missing U.S. servicemen.
The Associated Press
contributed to this story.