Heartache goes on for MIA families

[djon]

Heartache goes on for MIA families
By Matthew Davis
BBC News, Washington


Three decades since the end of the Vietnam war, the families of more than 1,800 US soldiers who went missing in action are still waiting for an end to their uncertainty.
There is no credible evidence of American soldiers being held against their will in South East Asia, the military says.

But those who have never learned what happened to their loved ones still wrestle with unanswered questions: Were they captured? How did they die? Could they still be alive?

In Full (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4446789.stm)
[edit: correct link]

[Luno]

I don’t think there are any alive American soldiers left in Vietnam but we al know that hope is the last to die..
I saw a documentary on discovery about that the American government are still going down to Vietnam to excavate the old battlefield for bones to make a DNA analyse and give the family something to bury.
So credit to America for that they still are looking for soldiers reported as MIA

[11F5S]

A grave for Malcolm Miller

The remains of the Navy corpsman from Tampa are found in Vietnam and will be buried at Arlington cemetery.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published April 26, 2005

"TAMPA - For nearly four decades, Malcolm Miller's family wondered if they would ever get a chance to say goodbye to the red-headed young man with a charmingly goofy grin.

Miller grew up in South Tampa, just miles from MacDill Air Force Base, and he believed in serving God and country. So, on his second tour of duty in Vietnam, he agreed to go to a combat zone when he could have avoided it.

He was a 20-year-old Navy corpsman assigned to a Marine platoon when, on May 10, 1967, he and three others on patrol near Khe Sanh went missing after a firefight with dozens of Viet Cong. Their families were told they were dead, but the bodies weren't recovered.

For some 38 years, Miller's family waited for word.

"Without having his remains actually here, there's always been that mystery of is he still alive," said his niece, Dana Fisher, 32, of Madison, Ga.

On Monday, the public announcement finally came: His remains had been identified.

Next month, on the 38th anniversary of when he went MIA, Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Malcolm Thomas Miller will receive a burial at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

"We have decided we are not calling this closure," Fisher said. "This is a new beginning, because we know we can kind of go on with our lives and know that he's here and he has a home. We have a place that we can go and visit and know that his remains are there."

The U.S. Department of Defense's POW/Missing Personnel Office announced Monday that the remains of Miller and three others who were on his recon team had been found and will be returned to their families. The other men are Marine 2nd Lt. Heinz Ahlmeyer Jr. of Pearl River, N.Y.; Marine Sgt. James N. Tycz of Milwaukee; and Marine Lance Cpl. Samuel A. Sharp Jr. of San Jose, Calif.

Sharp was buried Saturday in San Jose but will be honored at Arlington. Ahlmeyer, Tycz and Miller will all be buried in Arlington on May 10.

They were part of a long-distance reconnaissance patrol operating northwest of the U.S. Marine base in Khe Sanh, Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, when they came under enemy attack shortly after midnight.

Miller and the other three were killed. Three more Marines survived the attack and were rescued by helicopter. But they were unable to recover the bodies because they were under heavy fire.

One helicopter pilot, Capt. Paul T. Looney, was shot to death while hovering 20 feet above the site, and was posthumously awarded the Silver Star."

full story:

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/04/26/State/A_grave_for_Malcolm_M.shtml