Updated at 3:32 p.m., Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Hawaii-based unit aids in identifying missing U.S. airmen
Advertiser Staff and News Services
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, were identified with assistance from Hawai'i troops and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.They are Capt. Warren R. Orr Jr., U.S. Army, of Kewanee, Ill.; and Airman 1st Class George W. Long, U.S. Air Force, of Medicine, Kan. Long was buried Sept. 30 in Medicine and Orr's burial is being set by his family.
On May 12, 1968, the men were part of a crew on a C-130 Hercules evacuating Vietnamese citizens from the Kham Duc Special Forces Camp near Da Nang, South Vietnam.
While taking off, the crew reported taking heavy enemy ground fire. A forward air controller flying in the area reported seeing the plane explode in mid-air soon after leaving the runway.
In 1993, a joint U.S.-Socialist Republic of Vietnam team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command out of Hickam Air Force Base, traveled to Kham Duc and interviewed four local citizens concerning the incident.
The local citizens led the team to the crash site, and turned over remains and identification tags they had recovered in 1983 while looking for scrap metal. During this visit, the team recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage at the site.
In 1994, another joint team excavated the crash site and recovered remains, pieces of life-support equipment, crew-related gear and personal effects.
Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Hawai'i-based POW/MIA accounting command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons in the identification of the remains.
