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RATANAKIRI, Cambodia-- Two U.S. Air Force pilots were crewing an F-4D aircraft during a strike mission against a bridge located in Cambodia when they were shot down by enemy forces during the Vietnam War, May 13, 1970. In dire search to find the two pilots, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) sent a team of 11 service members to execute recovery operations in the Ratanakiri Province in hopes of returning the missing heroes back home. Among the team was Dr. James Shorten, a U.S. witness, who participated in search and recovery missions for the pilots over 40 years ago, a day after the pilot’s tragic crash.
With 30 days of rigorous digging and screening in the jungles of Cambodia, the team excavated over 480 square meters of land recovering important evidence relating to missing servicemen lost during the war.
“In 2002 I set up a possibility to come back,” said Shorten. “I traveled for 10 days and made it to the site where I found some pieces of equipment and brought some back. It feels good to be back, good to go back how I went in. It’s really puts it in perspective.”
The site will remain open for more teams to excavate in hopes of finding more evidence, bringing the two pilots home.
“The next recovery teams will have additional areas to excavate within this area,” said Dr. Mary Megyesi, forensic anthropologist. “We hope to recover the pilots at this site, and we found good evidence that they may be here.”
With the continued hard work and dedication of the recovery teams, DPAA will continue to fulfill our nations promise and provide fullest possible accounting for our missing service members to their families and the nation.
| Date Taken: | 04.18.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.14.2017 16:27 |
| Story ID: | 230757 |
| Location: | KH |
| Web Views: | 14 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, "The Search Continues", by GySgt Demetrius Munnerlyn, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
