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Author: RIP_08
Surnames: Chaney
Classification: military
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.chaney/1124/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
On the Web:
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12077
IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 610-08
July 17, 2008
Soldiers Missing From The Vietnam War Are Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today
that the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing from the Vietnam War, have been
identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
. . . Warrant Officer Arthur F. Chaney, of Vienna, Va., both U.S. Army. . . .
and Chaney will be buried Sept. 16 in Arlington.
Representatives from the Army met with the next-of-kin of these men to explain
the recovery and identification process, and to coordinate interment with military honors
on behalf of the secretary of the Army.
On May 3, 1968, these men flew an AH-1G Cobra gunship on an armed escort
mission to support a reconnaissance team operating west of Khe Sanh, in Quang Tri
Province, South Vietnam. Their helicopter was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire, exploded in
mid-air and crashed west of Khe Sanh near the Laos-Vietnam border. The crew of other U.S.
aircraft flying over the area immediately after the crash reported no survivors, and heavy
enemy activity prevented attempts to recover the men's bodies.
In 1985, an American citizen with ties to Southeast Asian refugees turned over
to U.S. officials human remains supposedly recovered from an AC-130 aircraft crash in
Laos. While subsequent laboratory analysis disproved the association of the remains to the
AC-130 crash, some of the remains were those of . . . Chaney.
Between 1989 and 2003, Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) investigative
teams working in Laos and Vietnam made five attempts to locate the crew's crash site,
but could not confirm the location.
Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence,
scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used
mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons in identifying the remains.
For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account
for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703)
699-1169.
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