USAF Airman 1st Class Jerry Wall; Vietnam

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today
that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, killed in action from the Vietnam War, have been
identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.


Air Force Airman 1st Class Jerry M. Wall, 24, of Jacksonville, Texas, will be buried Oct.
26, in San Antonio. On May 18, 1966, Wall and four other crew members were aboard a C-123B
Provider aircraft that crashed while carrying out a nighttime flare-drop mission over Binh Dinh,
South Vietnam. Nearby U.S. ground troops reported seeing Wall’s aircraft hit by enemy ground
fire and crash. Heavy enemy presence in the area prevented immediate search and rescue efforts.
Later that day the remains of three of the five crew members were recovered.

From 2007 to 2012, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams conducted
interviews and excavations of the crash site in Binh Dinh Province. Department of Defense
casualty and life support experts identified the location as Wall’s possible loss site. The teams
excavated the site and found human remains, military equipment, a military identification tag
bearing Wall’s information, and aircraft wreckage of a C-123.

In the identification of the remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting
Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used
circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as radiograph, dental records and
mitochondrial DNA–which matched Wall’s mother.

http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/news/news_releases/2012/release_wall.pdf

 

Welcome home, Airman Wall. Be at peace. :S!