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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Army Soldiers MIA From Vietnam War Are Identified (Foster, Smith, Batt, Bobe) 

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced todaythat the remains of four U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have beenidentified and are being returned to their families for burial.

They are Lt. Col. Marvin L. Foster, Hubbard, Tex.; Capt. David R. Smith, Dayton, Ohio;Sgt. 1st Class Michael L. Batt, Defiance, Ohio; and Sgt. 1st Class Raymond E. Bobe, Tarrant,Ala., all U.S. Army.

On March 16, 1969, Capt. Smith was piloting an Army U-21A Ute aircraft with Foster,Batt, Bobe and one other passenger aboard whose remains have not been identified. The aircraftleft Qui Nhon airfield in South Vietnam, headed for Phu Bai airport near Hue. The Da Nangcontrol tower briefly established radar and radio contact, but was unable to maintain it. Theaircraft never landed at the Phu Bai airport.

Combat search and rescue units scoured the area, both land and sea, for the next eightdays, but did no t find the missing aircraft.

In 1988 and 1989, the Vietnamese government turned over to U.S. specialists severalboxes of human remains, including identification tags for Bobe and Smith. The technology atthe time failed to yield an identification of the remains. Also in 1989, a Vietnamese refugee inthe Philippines was interviewed, and turned over human remains as well as a rubbing of anidentification tag for Bobe.

U.S. specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) conductedseven investigations between 1993 and 1999, to include interviews with Vietnamese nationalswho claimed to have knowledge of the crash. Then in April and May of 2000, the JPACexcavated an area about 25 miles northwest of Da Nang, where they found aircraft debris andhuman remains.

JPAC scientists and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory specialists usedmitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to help identify the remains.

Of those Americans unaccounted- for from all conflicts, 1,827 are from the Vietnam War,with 1,393 of those within the country of Vietnam. Another 756 Americans have been accountedfor in Southeast Asia since the end of the Vietnam War. Of the Americans identified, 528 arefrom within Vietnam.

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

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