Two Airmen MIA buried after 41 years

  • Published
  • By Christin Michaud
  • Air Force Mortuary Affairs Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --The remains of two servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Air Force Col. James E. Dennany, 34, of Kalamazoo, Mich., and Maj. Robert L. Tucci, 27, of Detroit, were buried as a group Jan. 14, in the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery.

Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Commander Col. Thomas C. Joyce served as the official military escort.
"I am truly humbled and honored to escort home two fallen Airmen," he said.

The colonel escorted the remains from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport for a dignified arrival before being transported to Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery for a group burial.

"The reception and honors rendered at Dallas-Fort Worth (International) Airport upon arrival were tremendous," Col. Joyce said.

During the ceremony at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, Col. Dennany and Maj. Tucci were honored by several groups, as well as by a flyover of three F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 457th Fighter Squadron based at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, Texas, and an F-4 Phantom from Detachment 1, 82nd Aerial Targets Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.

On Nov. 12, 1969, Dennany and Tucci were flying the number three aircraft of three F-4Ds escorting an AC-130 gunship on a nightstrike mission over Laos. After the gunship attacked six trucks and set two of them on fire, the AC-130 crew's night vision equipment was impacted by the glow from the fires. They requested that Tucci attack the remaining trucks. During the attack, gunship crew members observed anti-aircraft artillery gunfire directed at Tucci's plane followed by a large explosion. No radio transmissions were heard from the F-4D following the attack and no parachutes were seen in the area. An immediate electronic search revealed nothing and no formal search was initiated due to heavy anti-aircraft fire in the area.

Beginning in the mid-1990s analysts at the Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office and the JPAC developed case leads they collected from wartime reporting and archival research.

In 1994, a joint U.S.-Lao People's Democratic Republic team led by JPAC analyzed leads, interviewed villagers, and surveyed five reported crash sites near the record loss location with negative results.

In 1999, during another joint survey, officials in Ban Soppeng, Laos, turned over remains later determined to be human, two .38 caliber pistols and other crew-related equipment that villagers had recovered from a nearby crash site. Between 1999 and 2009, other joint U.S.-L.P.D.R. teams pursued leads, interviewed villagers, and conducted three excavations. They recovered aircraft wreckage, human remains, crew-related equipment and personal effects.

JPAC scientists used forensic tools and circumstantial evidence in the identification of the remains.

"I am grateful for all those in Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command involved in the return of Colonel Dennany and Major Tucci, and our Air Force mortuary-affairs specialists who have stayed in contact with their families throughout the process," Col. Joyce said. "We are fortunate to serve a nation committed to the dignified return of these and all fallen heroes."

With the accounting of these airmen, 1,702 service members still remain missing from the conflict.

AFMAO mortuary-affairs specialists with the technical and identification branch contact family members in an effort to obtain DNA samples to help identify the remains of lost loved ones.

In a repatriation effort, DNA samples are being requested from certain family members of those individuals missing in action from the Korean War, Vietnam Conflict and the Cold War

For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/ or call 703-699-1169.