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## News Release

# Navy Aviator Missing In Action From The Vietnam War Is Identified (Mongilardi)

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 Cmdr. Peter Mongilardi, Jr., U.S. Navy, of Haledon, N.J. He will be buried on April11 at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C.

On June 25, 1965, Mongilardi departed the USS Coral Sea in his A-4C Skyhawk on anarmed reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam. His flight encountered bad weather andenemy fire over Thanh Hoa Province, causing the wingman to lose visual and radio contact withMongilardi. Contact was never re-established and the aircraft failed to return to the carrier.

In 1993, a joint U.S.-Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) archival team, led by theJoint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), obtained information concerning the crash whileresearching documents, artifacts and photographs at the Central Army Museum in Hanoi. Laterthat year, another joint U.S./S.R.V. team conducted an investigation in Thanh Hoa Province. Theteam interviewed two local Vietnamese citizens who recalled the crash and said the pilot died inthe impact. The men then led the team to the crash site.

In 1994, another joint team excavated the crash site and recovered human remains andpilot-related items, including a belt tip, boot heel, pieces of flight boot and other items worn bythe pilot.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists fromJPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used nuclear DNA in theidentification of the 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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