NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of Defense
No. 936-06 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2006
Media Contact: (703) 697-5131/697-5132
Public/Industry(703) 428-0711
Navy Aviator Missing In Action From Vietnam War is Identifies
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
announced yesterday that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action
from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to his family for
burial with full military honors.
He is Lt. Cmdr. James E. Plowman, U.S. Navy, of Pebble Beach, Calif.
He was buried yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington
D.C.
On March 24, 1967, Plowman and a fellow officer departed the USS Kitty
Hawk in their A-6A Intruder on a night strike mission of an enemy
target in North Vietnam. Radar contact with their aircraft was lost over the
Ha Bac Province as they were departing the target area. A pilot from
another aircraft reported two missile warnings on his radar screen
immediately before contact was lost with Plowman's aircraft.
Between 1993 and 1996, joint U.S.-Socialist Republic of Vietnam
(S.R.V.) teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted
three investigations in the province. The team interviewed two local
villagers who saw the 1967 crash, and both men recalled seeing human
remains at the site. The team also surveyed the purported crash site and
found several small fragments of aircraft wreckage.
In 1996, another joint U.S./S.R.V. team excavated the suspected crash
site. The team found human remains from amid the scattered wreckage.
The team was also handed some remains by a local villager who claimed to
have recovered it while scavenging the crater for metal.
Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence,
scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory
also used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of the remains.
No. 936-06 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2006
Media Contact: (703) 697-5131/697-5132
Public/Industry(703) 428-0711
Navy Aviator Missing In Action From Vietnam War is Identifies
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
announced yesterday that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action
from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to his family for
burial with full military honors.
He is Lt. Cmdr. James E. Plowman, U.S. Navy, of Pebble Beach, Calif.
He was buried yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington
D.C.
On March 24, 1967, Plowman and a fellow officer departed the USS Kitty
Hawk in their A-6A Intruder on a night strike mission of an enemy
target in North Vietnam. Radar contact with their aircraft was lost over the
Ha Bac Province as they were departing the target area. A pilot from
another aircraft reported two missile warnings on his radar screen
immediately before contact was lost with Plowman's aircraft.
Between 1993 and 1996, joint U.S.-Socialist Republic of Vietnam
(S.R.V.) teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted
three investigations in the province. The team interviewed two local
villagers who saw the 1967 crash, and both men recalled seeing human
remains at the site. The team also surveyed the purported crash site and
found several small fragments of aircraft wreckage.
In 1996, another joint U.S./S.R.V. team excavated the suspected crash
site. The team found human remains from amid the scattered wreckage.
The team was also handed some remains by a local villager who claimed to
have recovered it while scavenging the crater for metal.
Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence,
scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory
also used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of the remains.