Vietnam crash
forces delay
in MIA search

Next month's mission was
to be a follow-up to the work
done by the 16 killed on April 7

---

Star-Bulletin staff

A Hawaii-based mission to recover the remains of Americans missing in action during the Vietnam War has been canceled because of the April 7 helicopter crash that killed 16 doing preparation work for the task.

Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, based at Camp H.M. Smith, said yesterday that the May 3-June 1 mission to find MIAs was canceled to give both the Americans and Vietnamese time to investigate the accident and rebuild the joint U.S.-Vietnamese operation.

The crash of a Vietnamese military helicopter in Quang Binh Province, about 280 miles south of Hanoi, killed seven U.S. servicemen -- all members of the Joint Task Force -- and nine Vietnamese.

The 16 were part of an advance teaming preparing for the 165th and latest Vietnam MIA recovery mission.

The bodies of the seven U.S. servicemen were returned to Hawaii on Friday to be buried with full military honors. They are expected to be returned to their families this week.

Lt. Col. Franklin Childress, Joint Task Force spokesman, has said the military is committed to continuing the recovery mission that began in 1992 to account for the 1,981 still missing from the Vietnam War.

This is only the second mission canceled by the task force. The first cancellation was in November 1999 due to flooding in Central Vietnam, according to the Joint Task Force.

The task force said it normally conducts 10 recovery missions a year in Southeast Asia.

The mission that was supposed to start next month would have involved 95 military members and civilians investigating seven sites in Vietnam.

The search would have been one of four conducted in Vietnam annually.