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      • Dave Lovelady
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The Unknown/Known Warrior (May 1972)

In the early 1980s the US government decided to bury the remains of an unidentified serviceman to represent the Vietnam War in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Washington, DC.  On 13 April 1984 the Department of Defense selected a set of unidentified remains that were being kept at the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii.  The remains finally chosen had been found by an ARVN reconnaissance team near An Loc in October 1972.  The remains only consisted of six bones comprising just three per cent of the skeleton.  Associated with the remains when they were originally found were pieces of a parachute and a flying suit, a pistol holster and a one-man inflatable life raft and, amazingly, an identity card bearing the name of 1Lt Michael Blassie.  This identity card was stolen before the remains reached the mortuary in Saigon and only a tentative identification was attached to the remains.  In 1980 this tentative identification was downgraded to an ‘unidentifiable’ status.  Thus it was apparent from the very start that the Unknown Warrior had been known to be an airman and was even tentatively identified as 1Lt Michael Blassie.  Nevertheless, in 1984 the by now unidentified remains were buried with full honours at the Arlington National Cemetery beside the Tomb of the Unknown Warriors from World War One, World War Two and the Korean War.

Several aircraft went down near An Loc during the war including two C-130s and an AC-119 (in which a total of 15 men were killed); two O-2s; an A-37 Dragonfly, and several helicopters.  The items found with the remains point very strongly to the remains being associated with the A-37 or O-2s as helicopter crews were not usually equipped with parachutes and the C-130 and AC-119 did not carry one-man life rafts.

Thanks to some determined investigative journalism based in part on the research of a POW/MIA activist, a series of reports were aired on CBS News concerning the identification of the remains.  Public pressure mounted on the Clinton Administration to investigate the remains that had been buried as the Unknown Warrior as it was strongly suspected that the remains recovered near An Loc in 1972 were those of 1Lt Michael Blassie.  Despite initial reluctance on the part of the US Government, President Clinton ordered the opening of the Tomb to allow an examination.  This took place on 14 May 1998 and a very thorough forensic examination involving the use of mitochondrial DNA testing did eventually prove that the scant remains belonged to 1Lt Blassie and he was laid to rest with full military honours at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St Louis, Missouri on 10 July 1998.  The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior representing the Vietnam War has since remained empty and now serves as a memorial to the commitment of the US armed forces to account for all missing servicemen whenever possible.

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© Chris Hobson and David Lovelady. All Rights Reserved.
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
      • Chris Hobson
      • Dave Lovelady
    • About the Book
    • About the Data
    • About this Site
  • Sidelines
    • Background to the Wars in Southeast Asia
    • 1961 to 1964: Civil War in Laos/Early Operations in South Vietnam
    • 1965: Escalation of the War/Start of Rolling Thunder
    • 1966: Rolling Thunder Gets into its Stride
    • 1967: Rolling Thunder - The Peak Year
    • 1968: Tet, Khe Sanh, and the End of Rolling Thunder
    • 1969: Interdiction on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
    • 1970: The Year of Withdrawal
    • 1971: A Much Reduced Presence
    • 1972: The Spring Invasion/Linebacker Campaigns
    • 1973: Winding Up the War
  • Statistics
    • Loss Statistics
    • Losses Due to Air Base Attacks
    • Losses Due to Accidents on the Ground or Aboard Ship
    • US Air Force Loss Statistics
    • US Navy Loss Statistics
    • US Marine Corps Loss Statistics
  • Details
    • Order of Battle
    • Index of Names
    • Abbreviations and Glossary of Operations, Code Names, and Projects
    • Bibliography
  • Searching the Database
    • Hints on How to Search
    • Notes and Caveats
    • Searching for Call Signs
    • Search Forms
  • Photo Gallery
  • Contact Us
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