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## News Release

# Marine Missing In Action From The Vietnam War Is Identified (Fischer)

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

He is Gunnery Sgt. Richard W. Fischer, U.S. Marine Corps, of Madison, Wis. He will beburied on Nov. 19 in Madison.

On Jan. 8, 1968, Fischer was assigned to M Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1stMarine Division, on an ambush patrol south of Da Nang in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam.Fischer became separated from his unit and subsequent attempts by his team members to locatehim were met with enemy fire.

In 1992 and 1993, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, led by theJoint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted three investigations and interviewedseveral Vietnamese citizens. The citizens said that Fischer was killed by Viet Cong and hisremains were buried in a nearby cultivated field.

In 1994, a joint team excavated the burial site and recovered human remains and othermaterial evidence including uniform buttons.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists fromJPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in theidentification of Fischer’s remains.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missingAmericans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1420.

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