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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Air Force Pilot Missing In Action From Vietnam War Is Identified (Hull)

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 soon be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

He is 1st Lt. James L. Hull, U.S. Air Force, of Lubbock, Texas. He will be buried on Nov.13 at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

On Feb. 19, 1971, Hull and a fellow crew member were flying a mission near theLaos/Vietnam border when their O-2A Skymaster crashed. Both men died, but Hull’s body wasburied in the wreckage and could not be recovered because of hostile enemy action.

Between 1993 and 1997, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) led threeinvestigations with U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, and one trilateralinvestigation with a Lao People’s Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R.) team. During the firstinvestigation, the team interviewed a Vietnamese citizen who produced human remains and anidentification tag for Hull that he claimed to have recovered from a crash site located just insideLaos. The joint team was not allowed to cross the border and the investigation was suspended.The Vietnamese turned over the bone fragment to U.S. officials, but the ID tag’s whereabouts arestill unknown.

Additional investigations yielded some information concerning a crash site located justinside the Laotian border. The S.R.V. allowed a Vietnamese national to walk to the purportedcrash site and collect a fragment of the wreckage. Based on the location, type of aircraft andretrieved wreckage, analysts determined it was Hull’s crash site.

In May 2006, a joint U.S./L.P.D.R. team excavated the site where they recoveredadditional evidence and human remains.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists fromJPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA from aknown maternal relative 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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