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As she looked around, the scene in front of her was filled with jungles and hills. The uneven ground was hidden by thick brush with a layer of frost from the freezing temperatures of the night prior.
As she scanned the area, she found that there were drastic changes to the landscape since the previous excavation and her plan had to compensate for those changes. It was on Jan 21, 2023, that she, along with the service members and civilians of recovery team one with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), reached a possible site of a pilot lost during the Vietnam War.
“Prior to arriving on site, I will make a scientifically sound excavation plan based on initial site surveys or previous excavations,” said Dr. Nicolette Parr, the team’s scientific recovery expert (SRE) and anthropologist. “However, this may all change the moment the team sets foot on the site if significant land modifications may have taken place. At this point, it is up to the SRE to formulate a new recovery strategy to mitigate unforeseen changes in the landscape and ensure that the site is excavated to the highest scientific standards.”
Based out of Hawaii, DPAA is comprised of participants from all around the world; their mission is to search and recover prisoners of war and missing in action personnel from past wars. Parr and the team need to ensure they develop clear plans and procedures to accomplish the mission.
“By following these protocols, missing personnel’s families can rest assured that we have done everything we can to recover the remains of their loved ones,” said Parr.
Now that the plan was made, the first step was clearing the thick brush and using metal detectors to scan for possible unexploded ordinance.
Over the next 45 days, Parr and her life support investigator (LSI), U.S. Air Force Master Sgt, Theodore Fioto, worked closely with the help of their 15-person team and roughly 100 village workers to uncover the lost pilot and bring him home.
The days started bright and early, with over an hour drive to the site; and as soon as boots hit the ground, the team’s daily routine began. They started off with a morning meeting where Parr explained what units would be dug and completed, then the team was off to their shifts, digging and screening through gallons of dirt, clay, and growth to find small pieces of aircraft wreckage and life support equipment.
Every piece found was studied by Parr and Fioto to create a path to where their lost pilot may be found.
Fioto had three main objectives. First, determine what type of aircraft was involved in the incident, which is done during the investigation prior to the recovery mission.
Secondly, identify what life support equipment (LSE) was necessary for this recovery. LSE can change depending on aircraft model and flight crew member being searched for. Once the LSE is determined, the third objective is put into action, helping guide the recovery team to areas most likely to yield human remains.
It takes years of experience working on aircraft to develop the ability to look at a piece of equipment and know what it is and where in the aircraft it belongs. For the reason, LSI’s are hand-picked from U.S. Air Force or Navy aircrew flight equipment specialists with knowledge of all kinds of aircraft.
“It’s difficult picking the right people for these missions because you have to have the background knowledge to understand the correct equipment types,” said Fioto. “Then you’re looking for equipment that we don’t even use anymore so unless you’ve worked on that specific type of equipment, you won’t have the knowledge.”
Before leaving for the mission, LSIs have to research the type of aircraft associated with the crash. Fioto described his experience working on and studying World War II and Vietnam era aircraft, so preparing for this mission was not as extensive as it may have been for a different LSI. But still, he had to research parts once the team returned from work every day to ensure he was accurately identifying equipment pieces.
“The LSI is an integral member of the team,” said Parr. “Together, [we] meticulously analyze every piece of material that is recovered during excavation to determine if it may be evidentiary in nature. Possible evidence, such as possible osseous material, life support equipment, personal items, and identification media, help me determine where to excavate based on the distribution of evidence.”
One day, after almost a month on site, one of the team’s explosive ordinance disposal technicians, U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Jake Castro, headed to his dig shift when he stumbled upon a glove sticking out of the dirt below him. Noticing that it looked like a pilot’s glove, he notified Parr and Fioto.
“Today, Castro found what we think is our pilot’s left glove!” exclaimed Parr during the team’s end of day meeting. This was a huge finding for the team and reminded everyone of how important their work was.
“Recovering evidence is our primary goal in the field; but it also helps with team morale,” said Parr. “Being able to show the team personal items that the service member carried with them or uniform parts, provides them with the fortitude they need to continue with the long hours of laborious excavation in challenging conditions.”
By the end of the mission, the team had recovered buckets full of aircraft material and life support equipment fragments, several pieces of possible osseous material and a dog tag.
“It’s such a humbling experience,” said Fioto. “I’ve been on many missions all over the world and this is unlike anything else.”
To commemorate the end of the mission and all the progress they made, the hard work of the team members and workers, and the relationships they had built, a celebration was held. They spent the day playing games, eating and spending time together, ending with a token of appreciation from the team to the village, an assortment of goods donated by team members.
Since 1973, the remains of more than 1,000 Americans killed during the Vietnam War have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors. DPAA tirelessly continues the search for the remaining 1,579 missing personnel from the Vietnam War, in order to provide the fullest possible accounting for missing and unaccounted U.S. personnel to their families and the nation.
| Date Taken: | 04.03.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 04.06.2023 08:46 |
| Story ID: | 441805 |
| Location: | LA |
| Web Views: | 184 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Chronical of a Mission to Laos, by Sgt Francesca Landis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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