REMAINS IDENTIFIED - 06/26/97
Rank/Branch: 03/US Marine Corps
Unit: UVGA542,MAG11
Date of Birth: 07 august 1969
Home City of Record: Winder Haven, FL
Date of Loss: 19 August 1969
Country of Loss: North Veitnam
Loss Coordinates: 170400N 1070600E (XE810020
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4B
Other Personnel in Incident: Robert N. Smith (missing)
Compiled by Homecoming ll Project with the assistance of Task Force Omega from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, coorespondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Date compiled: 01 January 1990.
On August 19, 1969, Lt. Col. Robert N. Smith, Pilot, and Capt. John N. Flanigan, radar entercept officer, departed Da Nang in their F4B Phantom fighter/bomber jet aircraft to fly escort on a photo reconnaissance mission just north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
Smith's aircraft made one run over the target, and then he and the other aircraft separated and were supposed to rendezvous for a second run. Smith never returned for the second run, and contact was never established with Smith or his backseater.
It was never determined whether Smith's sircraft was shot down or crashed because of a malvunction. However, the area in which they were last seen, about 5 miles east of the city of Vinh Linh in Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam, was relatively heavily defended. The U.S. believes there is a high degree of probability that the enemy knew what happened to Smith and Flanigan.
Smith and Flanigan were not among the prisoners of war that were released in 1973. High ranking U.S. officials admit their dismay that "hundreds" of suspected American prisoners of war did not return.
Alarmingly, evidence contineus to mount that Americans were left as prisoners in Southeast Asia and continue to be held today. Unlike "MIA's" from other wars, most of the nearly 2500 men and women who remain missing in southeast Asia can be accounted for. Smith and Flanigan could be among them. Isn't it time we brought our men home?
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FIVE AMERICAN HEROS COME HOME
United States Air Force
News Release
60th Air Mobility Wing (AMW)
Public Affairs DivisionTravis AFB, CA
News Release No. 9706-20 June 26, 1997
The remains fo FIVE American service members previously unaccounted for from Southeast Asia have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States. their remains will be repatriated in a ceremony at 4:00 pm June 26 on the Travis flightline.
They are identified as:
Lt. Col. Lewis H. Abrams, Marine Corps, of Montclair, NJ
Maj. Robert E. Holdeman, Marine Corps, of Winter Haven, FL
Captain John N. Flanigan, Marine Corps, of Winter Haven, FL
The names of two Air Force Aviators will not be released at the request of their families.
On November 25, 1997, Abrams and Holderman were shot down while flying a night stike mission near Haiphong, North Vietnam. A radio Peking broadcast confirmed the Marine Corps aircraft had been shot down in the vicinity of Haiphong. In 1988, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam repatriated what they believed to be the remains of U.S. service personnel lost during the Vietnam War. Included in the remains was a military identification card fragment with what appeared to be the name Abrams.
In 1993 and 1995, joint U.S. and Vietnamese teams investigated and excavated a crash site in Hai Phong Province. Local villagers reported that remains had previously been recovered and turned over to higher authorities. They also turned over bone fragments found near the crash site. On August 19, 1969, Flanigan and his pilot were flying an F-4B as escort for a photo recon mission over North Vietnam. They lost contact with other aircraft in their flight, and never made it back to their base at Danang, South Vietnam. In 1989, the Vietnamese gov. repatriated remains believed to be those of Flanigan. Four subsequent joint U.S. and Vietnamese investigations were able to locate their crash site in Quang Binh Province. The site was excavated in 1995 where aircraft wreckage aircrew related items, and personal effects were located, but NO human remains were found. the remains of Flanigan turned over by the Vietnamese were positively identified and Mitrochondrial DNA testing was used to confirm the identification. With the identification of these FIVE service members, 2118 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.
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All biological and loss information on POW's provided by Operation Just Cause have been supplied by Chuck and Mary Schantag of POWNET. Please check with http://www.asde.com/~oownet/POWNET/ regularly for updates.