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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Soldier Missing From Vietnam War Identified (Howes)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office 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.

Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 George A. Howes, 19, of Knox, Ind., will be buried Aug. 5in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. On Jan. 10, 1970, Howes and three aircrewmembers were returning to their base at Chu Lai, South Vietnam aboard a UH-1C Hueyhelicopter. Due to bad weather, their helicopter went down over Quang Nam Province, SocialistRepublic of Vietnam (S.R.V.). A search was initiated for the crew, but no sign of the helicopteror crew was spotted.

In 1989, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) gave to U.S. specialists 25 boxes thatreportedly contained the remains of U.S. servicemen related to this incident. Later that year,additional remains and a military identification tag from one of the other missing servicemenwere obtained from a Vietnamese refugee.

Between 1993 and 1999, joint U.S./S.R.V. teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA AccountingCommand (JPAC), conducted three investigations in Ho Chi Minh City and two investigations inQuang Nam-Da Nang Province (formerly Quang Nam Province). A Vietnamese citizen in HoChi Minh City turned over a military identification tag bearing Howes’ name and told the team heknew where the remains of as many as nine American servicemen were buried. He agreed to leadthe team to the burial site. In 1994, the team excavated the site and recovered a metal box andseveral bags containing human remains. In 2006, the remains of three of the four men wereidentified and buried. No remains could be attributed to Howes given the technology of the time.In 2008, given advances in DNA technology, the remains were reanalyzed.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists fromJPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons andmitochondrial DNA – which matched that of Howes’ sister and brother—in the identification ofthe remains.

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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