From the Special Forces National HQ:
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced that the remains of two U.S. service members, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
They are Maj. Frederick J. Ransbottom, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Staff Sgt. William E. Skivington Jr.; of Las Vegas, Nevada; both U.S. Army.
Ransbottom was buried in Edmond, Oklahoma on Jan. 13, 2007.
Skivington will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., at 1300 hrs on January 23, 2007.
On May 12, 1968, North Vietnamese forces overran the Kham Duc Special Forces camp and its surrounding observation posts in Quang Nam-Da Nang Province (formerly Quang Tin Province), South Vietnam. Ransbottom and Skivington were two of the 17 U.S. service members unaccounted for after the survivors evacuated the camp. Search and recovery efforts at the site in 1970 recovered remains of five of the 17 men. The North Vietnamese returned a sixth man alive during Operation Homecoming in 1973 after having been captured and held prisoner of war.
During an excavation conducted in 1998, two U.S. service members who survived the battle accompanied JPAC to help locate the observation posts, but found no evidence of human remains. Later excavations conducted in the area yielded human remains, identification media and personal effects for Ransbottom, Skivington and several other soldiers.
Welcome home, guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment