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## News Release

# Soldier Missing From Vitenam War Identified (Reno)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced todaythat the remains a U.S. serviceman and 12 Vietnamese citizens, missing in action from theVietnam War, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with fullmilitary honors.

Army Master Sgt. Ralph J. Reno, 36, of Chicago, will be buried on Sept. 8 in ArlingtonNational Cemetery near Washington, D.C., along with 12 Vietnamese citizens. The remainsrepresenting the group will be buried together, in a single casket. On July 3, 1966, with three U.S.soldiers from 5th Special Forces Group, three Vietnamese aircrew and nine Vietnamese passengers took offfrom Kham Duc, South Vietnam, on board an H-34 helicopter. The aircraft crashed in the mountains ofQuang Nam Province, South Vietnam, after they encountered severe air turbulence. Three search andrescue missions conducted in the days after the crash recovered the remains of two U.S. soldiers and sevenVietnamese.

Between 1993 and 1997, joint U.S.-Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, led bythe Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), attempted to survey the crash site but thehazards of the steep mountainous terrain and dense foliage forced them to turn back. InSeptember 1999, a team successfully located the wreckage of the helicopter and recommendedthe site for excavation. Excavation of the location started in 2000 and a joint team recoveredhuman remains and military equipment. Another joint team returned to the site in 2007 andrecommended a second excavation. In 2010, the second excavation recovered human remainsand more military equipment.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from theArmed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA – which matchedthat of his brother -- in the identification of Reno’s remains.

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

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