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## News Release

# Missing Airmen From Vietnam War Accounted For (Pietsch, Guillermin)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced todaythat the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing from the Vietnam War, have been accounted forand will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Robert E. Pietsch, 31, of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Maj. Louis F.Guillermin, 25, of West Chester, Pa., will be buried as a group Oct. 16, in a single casketrepresenting the two servicemen at Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C.Guillermin’s individual remains will be buried Oct. 5, 2013, in Broomall, Pa.

On April 30, 1968, Guillermin and Pietsch were on an armed-reconnaissance missionwhen their A-26A Invader aircraft crashed in Savannakhet Province, Laos. Witnesses saw anexplosion on the ground and did not see any signs of survivors. Search and rescue efforts wereunsuccessful, and Guillermin and Pietsch were listed as Missing in Action.

In 1994, a joint U.S./Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) team, lead by the JointPOW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), surveyed the crash site in Savannakhet Province,Laos. The team recovered human remains and evidence, but was unable to fully survey the sitedue to the presence of dangerous unexploded ordinance.

In 2006, joint U.S./LPDR teams assisted by Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnelcleared the site and gathered additional human remains and evidence such as personal effects andcrew-related equipment.

The remains recovered were analyzed by scientists from JPAC and the Armed ForcesDNA Identification Laboratory using circumstantial evidence and forensic analysis such asmtDNA comparisons. Portions of the remains were individually identified as Guillermin throughan mtDNA match from a hair sample from Guillermin’s medical file. The rest of the remainsrecovered were not individually identified, but correspond to both Pietsch and Guillermin.

There are more than 1,640 American service members that are still unaccounted-for fromthe Vietnam War.

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

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