THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, November 1, 1995            TAG: 9511010514
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS 
DATELINE: MIDDLESEX                          LENGTH: Short :   48 lines

FAMILIES ASK TO HALT MASS BURIAL THEY DOUBT THE REMAINS ARE TRULY FAMILY MEMBERS KILLED IN A 1970 CRASH.

Family members are asking the Pentagon to halt its plans for a mass burial service next week at Arlington National Cemetery for the crew of a reconnaissance plane shot down over Laos about 25 years ago.

Ginger Davis of Virginia Beach and Patti Hallman of Middlesex County are among family members who have cast doubts on Pentagon claims to have identified the remains of most of the 11-man crew aboard the Air Force AC-130A when it crashed April 22, 1970, during a secret mission.

In September, the Pentagon said it had recovered bones and other remains from the crash site and had identified seven crew members. A military ceremony and mass burial is planned for Nov. 8.

Four of the men's families - including Davis, the wife of Col. Charlie B. Davis, and Hallman, the daughter of Air Force Col. Charles S. Rowley - have petitioned members of Congress and senators to stop the mass burial.

Both Hallman and Davis said Tuesday they did not expect the ceremony to be stopped. But with their protest, they hope to draw attention to a bill that has been languishing in the House and Senate since February that would require a much greater burden of proof for the Pentagon to close POW-MIA cases, both women said.

Dubbed the ``Missing Service Personnel Act of 1995,'' the bill would update a 50-year-old law and require better record keeping, better reporting to family members, the establishment of a board of inquiry for each case and allow family members or their legal representatives to participate.

The bill has been sponsored several times, but Congress has never found the time to consider it. Traditionally, the Pentagon has opposed it because it would require more work.

Supporters are more hopeful for this year's version, sponsored in the Senate by Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan.

Davis and Hallman said they still plan to attend the Nov. 8 ceremony if it is conducted.

``I'm going to go as if it is a memorial,'' Davis said. ``If anyone deserves one, it is our crew. They've been through hell.''

KEYWORDS: MISSING IN ACTION VIETNAMESE WAR by CNB