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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Airman Missing From Vietnam War Identified (Blanton)

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

Air Force Lt. Col. Clarence F. Blanton, 46, of El Reno, Okla., will be buried Sept. 15, inhis hometown. In 1968, Blanton and 18 other men were assigned to Lima Site 85, a tactical airnavigation radar site on a remote, 5,600-foot mountain peak known as Phou Pha Thi in HouaphanProvince, Laos. In the early morning of March 11, the site was overrun by Vietnamesecommandos, causing the Americans to seek safety on a narrow ledge of the steep mountain. Afew hours later, under the protective cover of A-1 Skyraider aircraft, U.S. helicopters were able torescue eight of the men. Blanton, who was the U.S. commander of the site, and 10 otherAmericans were killed in action and unable to be recovered.

In 1994, a joint U.S. /Lao People’s Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R.) recovery operation,led by Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), took place near the top of Phou Pha Thiwith negative results. A second recovery operation, in 2003, resulted in the discovery of remainswhich were subsequently identified as one of the missing U.S. servicemen—Tech Sgt. Patrick L.Shannon. Since that time, JPAC has evaluated the feasibility of conducting recoveries on PhouPha Thi but logistics and safety concerns precluded further attempts.

From 1994 to 2009, in cooperation with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) andL.P.D.R., teams pursued multiple leads from dozens of witnesses interviewed, including thoseinvolved with the attack. In 2005, a Laotian citizen provided U.S. officials an identification cardbearing Blanton’s name and human remains purportedly found at the base of Phou Pha Thi.

Scientists from the JPAC and the AFDIL determined the identity of the remains usingcircumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as mitochondrial DNA–whichmatched Blanton’s sister.

Today, 1,660 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. Since 1973, 986servicemen have been accounted for from that conflict, and returned to their families for burialwith military honors. The U.S. government continues to work closely with the governments ofVietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to recover Americans lost during the Vietnam War.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missingAmericans, call (703) 699-1169 or visit the DPMO Web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo.

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