Airman MIA for 36 Years ID'd

Filed in archive Aviation News on December 26, 2006

DNA testing of remains returned to the US in 1989 from Vietnam have been positively identified as Captain Herbert Crosby, MIA for 36 years.

A Department of Defense press release says Captain Crosby, then 22, and two crewmen were flying aboard a UH-1C Huey helicopter back to their base in Chu Lai in 1970 when it went down in bad weather over Quang Nam Province in the country's southern region. A search and rescue effort by the Army was hampered by the rugged terrain and thick jungle.

A Vietnamese refugee and the Vietnamese government returned crash-related items, including human remains and Captain Crosby's dog tags, to US specialists in 1989. Further excavation of the crash site in 1994 produced more remains.

Earlier this month officials with the Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office ordered cross-matching of DNA from the remains found with that of Captain Crosby's two sisters. Scientists with the armed forces DNA Identification Laboratory were able to make a positive identification.

DNA tests had already identified the remains of two crewmen who were flying with Crosby: Sergeant First Class Wayne C. Allen, and Sergeant First Class Francis G. Graziosi.

Of the 2,646 Americans listed as missing in the Vietnam War, 841 have been identified and their remains returned.