THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409090549
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HANOI, VIETNAM LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
U.S. search teams apparently have made a significant breakthrough in accounting for Americans missing in action from the Vietnam War, a U.S. official said Thursday.
American investigators recovered remains believed to belong to a U.S. Marine who died in captivity in Quang Ngai Province, once part of South Vietnam, 325 miles northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.
The discovery was seen as a breakthrough by U.S. officials in Hanoi, who are looking into 84 cases of Americans missing in action from the war.
``I'm excited by it, I'm hopeful,'' said Army Lt. Col. Melvin E. Richmond Jr., head of the U.S. MIA Office in Hanoi. ``It's an important step.''
The United States handed over the 84 ``special remains cases'' to the Vietnamese a year ago, but not one had been solved up to now.
In each case, the Vietnamese photographed the dead American servicemen or the sites where POWs died in captivity and their remains were buried.
President Clinton has made Vietnam's cooperation in the fullest possible accounting of MIAs a condition for establishing full diplomatic relations.
Richmond said that Vietnamese cooperation was still ``strong'' in the latest field operation that began Aug. 18 and is to end Sept. 20. He said other remains believed to be those of Americans were either recovered or turned over by villagers, but he declined to say how many.
U.S. investigators were led to the gravesite by a former soldier who survived the POW camp and was released in 1973 when all American forces withdrew from Vietnam.
Thomas Davis, then a 20-year-old draftee private from Eufaula, Ala., said a prayer and buried his buddy nearly 25 years ago. He returned to Vietnam last January to help pinpoint the burial site.
Davis said as many as 10 Americans died in the camp. One was killed trying to escape, and others, like his friend, died from malnutrition and lack of medical care, he said.
``His body just gave out. I watched him die.''
Richmond cautioned that the identification was not final, and that a thorough forensic examination would be necessary.
``Up until this time, we've been unable to solve a single one of the 84 special remains cases,'' said Richmond. ``This is the first time that we have the possibility of solving one.''
KEYWORDS: PRISONER OF WAR MISSING IN ACTION MIA POW by CNB