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## News Release

# Air Force Pilot Missing From Vietnam War Is Identified (Rockett)

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 Lt. Col. Alton C. Rockett, Jr., U.S. Air Force, of Birmingham, Ala. He will be buriedMonday in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

On June 2, 1967, Rockett and his co-pilot, Capt. Daniel L. Carrier, crewed the number twoaircraft in a flight of two F-4Cs flying an armed reconnaissance mission over Quang BinhProvince, North Vietnam. During their bomb run, anti-aircraft ground fire was observed, butRockett reported that his aircraft was not hit. When the lead aircraft completed its bomb run, theflight leader told Rockett to return to base, but moments later, he saw a large fireball in his rearviewmirror. He made several radio calls to Rockett, but did not hear or see anything from theaircraft. Due to the dangerous location, there were no further search and rescue attempts.

In June and July 1989, Vietnamese officials repatriated to the United States sets of remainsof U.S. servicemembers. The officials also supplied documents identifying that three of the sets ofremains were those of Rockett, Carrier and another serviceman, Col. Samuel C. Maxwell. It waslater discovered that the name associations among those remains had been confused. In Octoberand November 1989, Maxwell and Carrier were identified after further analysis, but the third set ofremains could not be attributed to Rockett at that time.

In 1993, a joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) team, led by the JointPOW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), investigated the incident and interviewed witnesses.One Vietnamese citizen said that Rockett and Carrier were buried near the crash site, but that theirremains were exhumed in 1978 by Vietnamese officials.

In 2001, another joint U.S./S.R.V. team re-interviewed witnesses and surveyed the burialand crash sites. Small pieces of airplane wreckage were found at the crash site.

In 2003, a maternal-line mitochondrial DNA reference sample for Rockett was obtained.

In 2006, another joint U.S./S.R.V. team excavated the burial sites, but recovered no humanremains.

Using forensic identification tools, circumstantial evidence and mitochondrial DNA,scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory identified Rockett’sremains, which were those previously repatriated to the United States in 1989.

For additional information of 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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