The Department of Defense POW/Missing
Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in
action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his
family for burial with full military honors.
Army Capt. Charles R. Barnes
of Philadelphia, Pa., will be buried May 2, in Arlington National
Cemetery. On March 16, 1969, Barnes and
four other service members departed Qui Nhon Airfields bound for Da Nang and
Phu Bai, in a U-21A Ute aircraft. As
they approached Da Nang, they encountered low clouds and poor visibility. Communications with the aircraft were lost,
and they did not land as scheduled.
Immediate search efforts were limited due to hazardous weather
conditions, and all five men were list as missing in action.
From 1986-1989, unidentified human
remains were turned over to the United States from the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam (S.R.V.) in several different instances. None of the remains were identified given the
limits of the technology of the time.
In 1993, a joint U.S.-S.R.V. team, led
by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted investigations in
Quang Nam-Da Nang, and Thua Thien-Hue Provinces. They interviewed a local Vietnamese citizen
who supplied remains and an identification tag bearing Barnes’ name, which he
claimed to have recovered from an aircraft crash site.
In 1999, another joint U.S.-S.R.V. team
interviewed additional Vietnamese citizens about the crash and they were led to
the crash site. In 2000, a joint
U.S.-S.R.V. team excavated the site and recovered human remains and material
evidence.
Scientists from the JPAC and the Armed
Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used circumstantial evidence, and forensic
identification tools such as mitochondrial DNA -- which matched that of Barnes’
sister -- in the identification of the remains.
For additional information on the
Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, call
703-699-1420 or visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo .
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