Posted on: Monday, June 13, 2005

Remains of lost airman identified

Advertiser News Services

WASHINGTON — The military has identified the remains of a U.S. serviceman lost in Vietnam in 1966 as that of Air Force Col. James L. Carter of Johnson City, Tenn.

Carter was the commander of a C-123 Provider aircraft that took off from Khe Sanh in South Vietnam on Feb. 3, 1966, on a supply mission to Dong Ha, South Vietnam. The plane was not seen again, and searches along the flight route did not find a crash site.

Joint U.S. and Vietnamese teams investigated potential crash sites in Quang Tri Province on three occasions between 1993 and 1999.

One of the sites revealed wreckage consistent with that of a C-123 aircraft. Several of the informants said that the bodies of the crew and passengers were buried near the site where the aircraft crashed into a mountain in 1966.