The remains of eleven American servicemen previously unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States.
They are identified as U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Tim L. Walters, South Bend, Ind.; U.S. Army 1st Lt. James R. McQuade, Hoquiam, Wash.; U.S. Army Spc. James E. Hackett, Bradenton, Fla.; U.S. Air Force Col. George W. Jensen, Seattle, Wash.; U.S. Air Force Col. Marshall L. Tapp, Los Angeles, Calif.; U.S. Air Force Col. Lavern G. Reilly, St. Paul, Minn.; U.S. Air Force Maj. George W. Thompson, Beckley, W.Va.; U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. James A. Preston, Bowden, Ga.; U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. James E. Williams, Oxford, Miss.; U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. William L. Madison, Lexington, Ky.; and U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Kenneth D. McKenney, Auburn, Mass.
On March 9, 1969, Walters was aboard a 0-2A Super Skymaster flying a forward air control mission over Laos. The aircraft crashed, due to an unknown cause. Other aircrews in the area reported seeing the aircraft shortly after impact. A ground party went to the site shortly after the crash and determined that both crewmembers were dead, but they could not recover the remains due to heavy enemy activity in the area.
Joint U.S.-Lao investigators visited several alleged crash sites in 1993, 1994 and 1998, and an excavation was conducted in January, February and March 1999, where a team recovered human remains, personal effects and crew-related items.
Hackett and McQuade were attempting to rescue the crew of a downed aircraft when their own OH-6A helicopter exploded in mid-air over South Vietnam on June 11, 1972. In 1993 and 1994, joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams conducted investigations and an excavation where they recovered numerous human remains, pilot-related gear and personal effects.
On May 15, 1966, Jensen was piloting an AC-47D gunship on an armed reconnaissance mission over Laos. Also aboard the aircraft were Tapp, Thompson, Preston, Madison, McKenney, Williams, and Reilly. That evening, Jensen radioed to his airborne control aircraft that everything was normal on the mission, but the aircraft never returned to its home base. Joint U.S.-Lao investigative teams visited several sites in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997 and conducted excavations where they recovered human remains and crew-related items.
With the accounting of these servicemen, 2,032 are missing in action from the Vietnam War. Another 551 have been identified and returned to their families since the end of the war. Analysis of the remains and other evidence by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii confirmed the identification of these servicemen.
The U.S. government welcomes and appreciates the cooperation of the governments of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Lao People's Democratic Republic that resulted in the accounting of these servicemen. We hope that such cooperation will bring increased results in the future. Achieving the fullest possible accounting for these Americans is of the highest national priority.