Hickam event Seven American servicemen, described as "heroes" by their colleagues, returned home yesterday and will be buried with full military honors.
honors 7 killed in
MIA mission
An isle serviceman was among
those who died when their
helicopter crashedBy Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinAdm. Dennis Blair, Pacific Forces commander, recalled that it was just a day earlier that 24 other American servicemen and women, also described in the same manner, arrived here "with honor and to joyful families."
Blair was referring to the crew of the Navy EP-3 surveillance plane that was released from 11 days of Chinese captivity earlier this week.
Blair said the seven Americans, who were killed while preparing for the military's latest MIA recovery mission in Vietnam a week ago, "return to America with honor, but to grieving families."
The seven -- all members of the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting -- and nine Vietnamese were aboard a Vietnamese military helicopter that crashed April 7 about 280 miles south of Hanoi.
The 16 were part of an advance teaming preparing for the 165th and latest Vietnam MIA recovery mission, which was supposed to begin at seven sites May 3.
Lt. Col. Franklin Childress, Joint Task Force spokesman, said although it is not clear when the May 3 deployment will be held, the military is committed to continuing the mission begun in 1992 to account for the 1,981 still missing from the Vietnam War.
Navy Petty Officer Jose Gonzales, who lost his older brother Pedro in the crash, said that would be the proper thing to do."It was a good cause," Gonzales said. "It's hard for me to believe that he has died. I'm so used to having him gone for a long time."
But Gonzales said his brother, a Navy diver who went on the mission as a medic, believed what he was doing was important.
His family had uncles who served in the Vietnam War, Gonzales said, so both he and his brother understood the significance of the work that was being done.
Childress said Hickam has been the scene of countless repatriation ceremonies over the past decade as remains found in Southeast Asia were brought in and turned over to the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, the military's premier forensic facility for positive identification.
Yesterday's ceremony, however, was extremely painful to the staff of the Army facility at Hickam.
This time, it meant that the remains of one of their own -- Sgt. 1st Class Tommy Murphy -- lay in one of the seven flag-draped caskets.
No bands played. Only one short three-minute speech, a tribute by Pacific commander Blair, was offered.
"That's part of the ceremony," Childress said, "to do it in silence."
Johnie Webb, deputy director of the Army facility, described Murphy as a "gentle giant" who "really enjoyed what he was doing."Webb said Murphy volunteered for the Vietnam recovery mission and was on his second tour with the Army laboratory here in Hawaii.
Of the seven Americans killed, only the families of Murphy and Gonzales were at yesterday's ceremony.
All seven caskets were taken by white hearses to Webb's organization for positive identification, and then they will be returned to their families for burial on the mainland.
Yesterday's audience at the Hickam ceremony was strictly a military one, with many of the servicemen and women and their families wearing black, white and red ribbons, symbolizing the search for the nation's prisoners of war and missing in action.
Lt. Col. Pat Fields, a C-135 aircraft crew member, said he was at the ceremony out of "profound sadness and respect for the men who gave their lives."Maj. Bea Westmoreland, a member of Hickam's 15th Communications Squadron, said she was there "to pay my respects to the servicemen who died ... also to show that we're for them and we support their families and the mission they did."
The Hickam ceremony lasted only 30 minutes. The seven caskets were carried from the C-17 jet cargo transport by pallbearers from each of the four military services.
In his tribute Blair said "these seven servicemen served the United States with particular courage, working to heal the scars of war."
He added that the death of the Americans and the nine Vietnamese shows "the entire world that countries can put aside old differences for international military work when we have common goals."