Remains of D.C. serviceman from Vietnam era identified (2 MIAs ID'd)

[uppityperson]

2 more families finally get closure. RIP. Anyone still have their MIA bracelet?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002967458_webservicemanremains02.html

The remains of two Air Force crew members who were reported missing 34 years ago have been identified through DNA testing, according to Pentagon officials.

The Defense Department identified them Monday as Staff Sgt. Calvin C. Cooke, of Washington, D.C., and Tech Sgt. Donald R. Hoskins of Madison, Ind. A laboratory analysis of dental remains in March confirmed their identities through testing completed in Hawaii.... (clip, more at link)


All seven servicemen aboard were killed. Cooke, one of the cargo plane's loadmasters, was 26 at the time.

Enemy activity near the site delayed recovery efforts until 1975. A Vietnamese search team first recovered artifacts and remains, and teeth and bone fragments of other crew members were identified. But several crew members remain unaccounted for, Greer said.

[MuseRider]

1. I still have mine

and an etching that was made for me at the memorial in DC.

I need to look him up and see if he was ever found. There is a wonderful site to do that and learn about them but I have lost the link.

[enlightenment]

2. I still have mine as well -- I got it in 1971.

He hasn't come home yet.

Here's the web site you misplaced.

http://www.powmiaff.org/bracelets.html

[MuseRider]

3. This one too, I found it.

http://www.thewall-usa.com/

Here is mine...MAJ - O4 - Air Force - Regular Richard Claflin
34 year old Single, Caucasian, Male
Born on Jul 02, 1939
From KANSAS CITY, KANSAS
His tour of duty began on Jul 26, 1967
Casualty was on May 28, 1974
NORTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died while missing
FIXED WING - CREW
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Body was not recovered
Religion
METHODIST

[uppityperson]

4. I am very very glad that they are still IDing these guys.

What a sad thing, to know but never get proof.

[MaineDem]

5. I still have mine

I was in DC recently and visited the wall. I burst into tears when I first saw it.

I found the name on my bracelet. I hope his family knows that there are others - at least one more person - who are hoping for his remains to be found. Still MIA but presumed KIA.

RIP, Murray Borden.

[MuseRider]

6. That was

one of the hardest things I have done, going to that wall. It is perfect IMO because it brings out the appropriate emotion. Even my children, who were not even in High School at the time were brought to silence.

The site I posted above allows you to contact the family by leaving a message.

I have toyed with the idea of putting it back on, just to remind people. I wore the thing for years after it was over.

[uppityperson]

10. Took UPJr to a traveling wall when he was about 10, found accidentally

we were driving somewhere and I saw a sign saying it was there so did a quick turn because there was no way I would miss seeing it (living on the W coast I don't know if I'll see the big one). It was about 6 or 7 ft tall, stretched around a field. I gave UPJr a brief explanation, we found a friend's relative (flowers there), finally he said it was too sad could we leave so off to the hot springs instead. It was very sad and I am very very glad we were driving by that day.

[Historic NY]

7. Welcome home Sgts. Cooke & Hoskins......

your tour is done.

[myrna minx]

8. I am so glad that the are able to finally come home to their families.

:cry:

[Joe Chi Minh]

9. Not exactly directly related, but I was struck by the contrast

between the reaction of the Italian and the Australian governments, and the British and American governments to the homecoming of the mortal remains of their fallen combatants. Of course, the scale of the casualties involved precludes anything like a close correspondence, but I don't think there's any doubting the contrasting attitudes they reveal.

I'm referring to the State Funerals given by the former countries to their fallen servicemen and service women and the anonymity - as total as possible - accorded by the powers that be in our countries to our fallen servicemen and service women. One might have expected the government to organize and fund at least local funeral ceremonies.

Still, your Government has some way to go before it sinks to our level in the UK. I believe your operational combat aircraft all have underside armour, and have done since the Vietnam war. Here is a quote from writer Frederick Forsyth, which appeared yesterday in, I think, the Daily Mirror, on the Hercules shot down in Iraq, with the deaths of ten RAF aircrew, because it had no underside armour:

"The cost of converting one plane from a deathtrap to safe is now known to be rather less than our politicians in the last election spent on make-up."

It's why I would have a 2 mile exclusion zone for politicians, past or present - even if vets themselves - around the Cenotaph on Armistice Day. I swear for some of them, it would mean no more than a good photo-op, like fronting up at a top sporting occasion, such as the Olympic Finals.