Go Back   Professional Soldiers ® > Hall of Heroes > POW/MIA

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-08-2010, 17:01   #1
Stras
Quiet Professional
 
Stras's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Der Vaterland
Posts: 2,311
four servicemen MIA from Vietnam War identified and returned to their families

Welcome home

May your families be consoled by your return to US soil.


U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

On the Web:
http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Rele...eleaseID=13442
Media contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132 Public contact:
http://www.defense.gov/landing/comment.aspx
or +1 (703) 428-0711 +1


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 279-10
April 08, 2010


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. Soldiers MIA from Vietnam War Identified


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

A group burial for U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Kenneth L. Stancil, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Chief Warrant Officer Jesse D. Phelps, Boise, Idaho; Spc. Thomas Rice, Jr., Spartanburg, S.C.; and Spc. Donald C. Grella, Laurel, Neb., as well as Rice’s individual remains burial will be tomorrow at Arlington National Cemetery. Stancil, Phelps and Grella were buried individually last year.

The four men were aboard a UH-1D Huey helicopter which failed to return from a mission over Gia Lai Province, South Vietnam to pick up special forces soldiers on Dec. 28, 1965. The exact location of the crash site was not determined during the war, and search and rescue operations were suspended after failing to locate the men after four days.

From 1993-2005, joint U.S.-Socialist Republic of Vietnam teams led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command attempted unsuccessfully to locate the site. But in April 2006, a joint team interviewed two local villagers, one of whom said he had shot down a U.S. helicopter in 1965. The villagers escorted the team to the crash site where wreckage was found. In March 2009, another joint team excavated the area and recovered human remains and other artifacts including an identification tag from Grella.

JPAC’s scientists employed traditional forensic techniques in making these identifications, including comparisons of dental records with the remains found at the site.

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.
__________________
v/r
Stras
der Kriegskind SFA LXV

De Oppresso Liber
Stras is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2010, 17:13   #2
greenberetTFS
Quiet Professional (RIP)
 
greenberetTFS's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Carriere,Ms.
Posts: 6,922
God Bless,Rest in Peace Warriors...........

Big Teddy
__________________
I believe that SF is a 'calling' - not too different from the calling missionaries I know received. I knew instantly that it was for me, and that I would do all I could to achieve it. Most others I know in SF experienced something similar. If, as you say, you HAVE searched and read, and you do not KNOW if this is the path for you --- it is not....
Zonie Diver

SF is a calling and it requires commitment and dedication that the uninitiated will never understand......
Jack Moroney

SFA M-2527, Chapter XXXVII
greenberetTFS is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2010, 17:45   #3
armymom1228
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Welcome home gentlemen, you have been missed!
AM
  Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2010, 17:56   #4
Ret10Echo
Quiet Professional
 
Ret10Echo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Occupied America....
Posts: 4,740
Welcome home men...

Rest well...
__________________
"There are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations"

James Madison
Ret10Echo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2010, 18:16   #5
Tatonka316
Gold Star Father
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Littleton, Colorado
Posts: 388
Welcome home, warriors and may you all rest in peace. Thank you for your service and your sacrifice. You will always be missed and NEVER forgotten.

molon labe
Tatonka316 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2010, 18:41   #6
SF_BHT
Quiet Professional
 
SF_BHT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Sneaking back and forth across the Border
Posts: 6,655
Welcome Home.... You have been missed...
SF_BHT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2010, 20:52   #7
TommyGun
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Welcome home

RIP Brothers
  Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2010, 21:55   #8
rdret1
Quiet Professional
 
rdret1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Wilson,NC
Posts: 1,506
Thank you for your courage, dedication and sacrifices. Welcome home. Rest in peace.
__________________
"Solitude is strength; to depend on the presence of the crowd is weakness. The man who needs a mob to nerve him is much more alone than he imagines."

~ Paul Brunton (1898-1981)



R.D. Winters
rdret1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2010, 01:12   #9
Green Light
Quiet Professional
 
Green Light's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Eastern Panhandle, WV
Posts: 719
Well done thou good and faithful servants. You were not forgotten.
Green Light is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2010, 07:33   #10
robert2854
Asset
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: tenn
Posts: 43
MIA'S FOUND

Welcome Home....We missed you and thought of you, but bless the families, loved ones, and friends who missed you more than we will know. Your sacrifice will always be remembered.
robert2854 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2010, 08:59   #11
ZonieDiver
Quiet Professional
 
ZonieDiver's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Georgetown, SC
Posts: 4,204
May their families finally find the peace that those men went to war to assure.
__________________
"I took a different route from most and came into Special Forces..." - Col. Nick Rowe
ZonieDiver is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2010, 09:42   #12
Speedgod
SF Candidate
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Posts: 70
Welcome home warriors. RIP


SG
Speedgod is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2010, 09:45   #13
Red Flag 1
Area Commander
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 2,952
Welcome home. May you all rest in peace.
Red Flag 1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2010, 13:50   #14
f50lrrp
BANNED USER
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Monterey California
Posts: 392
Welcome home, BROTHERS!
f50lrrp is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2010, 14:08   #15
Richard
Quiet Professional
 
Richard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: NorCal
Posts: 15,370
RIP, EIGHT-ZERO-EIGHT.

Notice who their Platoon Leader was - CPT Ed 'Too Tall' Freeman of Ia Drang fame and CMH recipient.

Richard


A Note from The Virtual Wall

The Vietnam Helicopter Pilots' Association database contains the following statement from Captain Ed Freeman, the platoon leader for this flight:

"On Dec. 27th, CWO Phelps was selected to fly from a base camp near Qui Nhon, about 20 miles north of An Khe, to the "golf course" at An Khe. The reason he was selected was because he was the most qualified to fly by instrumentation. The crew stayed the night at An Khe, so they could get a good night's rest and clean up. The next morning they departed from An Khe with a cargo of machine guns and hot food for the troops at the base camp near Qui Nhon. They radioed ahead to the forward camp that they were in the air and on the way. There was no contact after that. Within a short time of being overdue a search was ordered of a grid area that was determined to be where they could have run out of fuel, in all directions. The search went on by air for a period of 3 days. There was one spot that appeared to have had disturbance in the trees and a Chinook helicopter was brought in and troops did rappel into the area. They didn't find anything. A ground search was conducted in various areas, but some areas were not accessible, due to the jungle and swamp conditions."

UH-1D tail number 63-08808 of A Company, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion departed An Khe shortly before dawn on 28 December 1965. The planned flight route passed over mountainous terrain in the vicinity of the An Khe Pass.

The flight crew consisted of:
  • CW2 Kenneth Leon Stancil, pilot
  • CW2 Jesse Donald Phelps, copilot
  • SP5 Donald C. Grella, crew chief
  • SP4 Thomas Rice, Jr, gunner
About ten minutes after the 0555 take-off, CW2 Stancil contacted the A Company forward operating base to obtain current weather information. That was the last contact with the aircraft.

The aircraft was declared down at 0715 and search-and-rescue operations began at 0730. No trace of the aircraft or its crew was found. The four crewmen were declared to be Missing in Action.

During the first annual review of this incident, the Review Board concluded that all available evidence indicated that the four men had died in the crash of their helicopter and their status was changed on 29 Dec 1966 to "Died While Missing/Body not Recovered". The crash site has not been located and the remains of the four crewmen have not been repatriated.

With the exception of WO Phelps, the men were previously assigned to the Aviation Company of the 7th Special Forces Group, which was then attached to the 229th Aviation Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division; WO Phelps was from the 5th Special Forces Group and similary attached. "A" Company, 229th Avn Bn (C/S - HACKSAW) was formed using personnel and equipment assets from these attachments.
__________________
“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” - To Kill A Mockingbird (Atticus Finch)

“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.” - Robert Heinlein
Richard is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:36.



Copyright 2004-2022 by Professional Soldiers ®
Site Designed, Maintained, & Hosted by Hilliker Technologies