News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Memorial Service

Date: May 10, 2001

"Emotional Service for Those Who Sought to Find the Fallen
By Steve Vogel Thursday, May 10, 2001; Page GZ23

Seven U.S. servicemen who died so that others could go home were remembered last month at Fort Myer in Arlington at an emotional memorial service for the victims of a helicopter crash in Vietnam.

The servicemen, part of a team looking for Americans missing in action in Vietnam, were killed along with nine Vietnamese counterparts on April 7 when their Russian-built MI-17 helicopter crashed into a foggy mountain in central Quang Binh province, about 250 miles south of Hanoi. The team was scouting MIA crash sites for an excavation that was to begin this month but has been canceled in the wake of the accident.

"Soldiers of nations once divided, they were united in a common cause, and they were embarked on a mission of peace -- to return lost warriors home to those who love them," said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, speaking from an altar that bore the American, Vietnamese and POW-MIA flags.

"The souls we honor today . . . will long live on in the work they have done and the work that their comrades will continue to do," Wolfowitz said. "Their good deeds and their lives of honor will not only endure, but they will strengthen the cause for which they sacrificed."

Killed in the crash were the outgoing head of the Hanoi-based unit that conducts the MIA searches, Army Lt. Col. Rennie Cory Jr., 43, of Fayetteville, N.C.; as well as the man who was to replace him in July, Army Lt. Col. George D. "Marty" Martin III, 40, of Hopkins, S.C. Also killed was the deputy commander, Air Force Maj. Charles E. Lewis, of Las Cruces, N.M.; Air Force Master Sgt. Steven L. Moser, of San Diego; Air Force Tech. Sgt. Robert M. Flynn, of Huntsville, Ala.; Navy Chief Petty Officer Pedro Juan Gonzalez, of Buckeye, Ariz.; and Army Sgt. 1st Class Tommy James Murphy, of Dawson, Ga.

More than 175 people attended the memorial, including the widows of Martin and Cory, friends of the victims, representatives of the Vietnamese Embassy and a delegation of Russian military officers.

Also present were most of the 120 workers in the Defense Department's Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office in Arlington. "If you're around the military for any length of time, this kind of thing happens, but it's hit home pretty hard," said Larry Greer, a spokesman for the office.

Ron Cima, an analyst in the office's Southeast Asia section and a friend of Cory's, performed a vocal solo of "On Eagle's Wings" as part of the service.

"These men laid down their lives for their fellow service members and for the families of those who remain missing from the Vietnam War," said Army Brig. Gen. Harry Axson, commander of the joint task force overseeing recovery operations in Southeast Asia. "A measure of a man's life is the difference he makes in this world. I can truthfully say that each one of these men made a tremendous difference."

Axson said there had been an "overwhelming outpouring" of cards, letters, e-mails and phone calls from families of the missing, veterans groups and concerned citizens.

The Vietnamese victims of the crash included Nguyen Than Ha, deputy director of the Vietnamese liaison office; Senior Col. Tran Van Bien, deputy director for the Vietnamese Office for Seeking Missing Personnel; Lt. Col. Nguyen Van Ha; Maj. Nguyen Thanh Son; Maj. Nguyen Huu Nham; Maj. Vu Pham The Kien; Lt. Giap Thanh Ngan; Lt. Pham Duy Dung; and Lt. Dang Ngoc, all officers in the Vietnamese Air Force.

"We mourn with their families, and offer our deepest gratitude for their assistance," Wolfowitz said.

The remains of 591 American service members formerly listed as unaccounted for have been identified and returned to their families since 1973. There are 1,498 Americans still unaccounted for in Vietnam.

The search will continue, U.S. officials said. "On behalf of those we honor today, on behalf of those still missing, we rededicate ourselves to the fullest possible accounting of every American," Wolfowitz said."