The site, less than 5 miles off the coast of Nha Trang City in Khanh Hoa province of Vietnam, is currently in the process of being excavated by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). There, nearly 100 ft below the surface, divers and other specialized personnel search for the remains of four service members who have not yet been accounted for. Lost in October of 1971, the Army helicopter was carrying five crew members and five passengers when it plummeted into the sea. Of the ten, the remains of four were recovered by search teams in November of 1971. DPAA was able to recover and identify two more during other missions to the site.
It was a hot, hazy day in Nha Trang as Capt. DeLeo and other senior members of both the Blue Ridge, USCGC Waesche, U.S. 7th Fleet staff, U.S. Consul General Burns, and Vietnamese government officials from the Vietnam Office of Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP) piled into a shaded speedboat. Soon, they were zipping across the calm bay waters with the city behind them, surrounded by the gentle embrace of verdant hills. Fishing boats and pleasure crafts dotted the bay. Set off from the others, a large red and blue barge, loaded with equipment and crowned with a yellow crane arching over nearly a third of its length, came into view. It is from this barge that DPAA has done their work for the last two and a half months.
U.S. Army Capt. Weston Iannone is a recovery team leader for the U.S. personnel working on the site.
“We’ve been out here since May 2,” said Iannone. “Almost every day, short of weather and we took one day off on Independence Day. We’re all here from 7am until about 4pm – us, the Vietnamese, all the contractors and security you see. This is not to float our own boat. Really, it’s a combined, multinational effort across all services just to bring them all home.”
These kinds of missions bring a vital sense of closure to families, whose loved ones left home and never returned.
“I was greatly impressed by the hard work and focus demonstrated by the DPAA site team,” said DeLeo. “Their effort to recover our missing-in-action service members truly demonstrates our country’s support of the men and women who wear the uniform. It was a moving experience.”
Mission personnel have already recovered aircraft wreckage, possible osseous materials, and identification media. The area is patrolled daily by the Vietnam Border Guard, providing the security needed to ensure the site and the recovery team remain undisturbed.
U.S. 7th Fleet is the largest forward-deployed fleet in the world, and with the help of a network of alliances and partners from 35 other maritime-nations, the U.S. Navy has operated in the Indo-Pacific region for more than 70 years, providing credible, ready forces to help preserve peace and prevent conflict.
