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## News Release

# Navy Pilot From Vietnam War Identified (Laws)

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.

Navy Lt. Richard L. Laws, 26, of West Sacramento, Calif., will be buried May 10, inAnnapolis, Md. On April 3, 1966, Laws was strafing enemy targets in Thanh Hoa Province,North Vietnam, when his F-8E Crusader was struck by enemy ground fire. His missioncommander saw his aircraft crash into a nearby hillside and explode. As a result, Laws wasdeclared killed in action.

From 1994 to 2003, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams conductedinterviews and excavations of the crash site in Thanh Hoa Province, based on an investigativelead from the Vietnam Central Armed Forces Museum in Hanoi. The teams recovered humanremains, U.S. aircraft wreckage, personal effects and life-support equipment; however, noremains could be attributes to Laws given the technology of the time.

In 2006, another U.S./S.R.V. team expanded the excavated site in Thanh Hoa Province.The team recovered additional human remains, aircraft wreckage, life-support equipment, andpersonal effects from the site.

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 mitochondrial DNA–whichmatched Laws’ mother.

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

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