General Category > Military/Defense News
Military (Former and Present) Funerals and Repatriations of MIAs Remains
Kamaji:
Wow.
rangerrebew:
Pilot bodies returned home after going missing in Vietnam 54 years ago
By
Miguel Ortiz
Updated on
Jul 19, 2023
Decades after they went missing in Vietnam, Col. Ernest Leo De Soto and Capt. Frederick Mervyn Hall were finally accounted for.
To date, over 1,060 service members lost in the Vietnam War have been identified through the tireless efforts of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Nearly 52 years after they went missing near Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, Col. Ernest Leo De Soto and Capt. Frederick Mervyn Hall were finally accounted for. Another two years later, De Soto finally returned home.
Born on December 30, 1931, De Soto was raised in San Francisco, California. During the Korean War, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Turning service into a career, De Soto earned a commission as an officer and became a fighter pilot. On April 12, 1969, De Soto flew an F-4D Phantom II with the 390th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 336th Tactical Fighter Wing. With Hall in the back seat and another aircraft on his wing, De Soto took off from Da Nang Air Force Base, Vietnam on a strike mission.
De Soto's wife said that, "He loved to fly, and he loved being an American, that was his life." (DPAA)
When the mission was canceled, both aircraft ascended through heavy cloud cover. That's when the other aircrew noticed that De Soto and Hall were nowhere to be seen. Although an aerial search and rescue effort located the crash site, there was no sign that either airman survived. Moreover, heavy enemy activity in the area prevented a ground search. A subsequent investigation revealed that De Soto and Hall's Phantom crashed into a mountain ridge.
https://www.wearethemighty.com/military-news/pilots-body-returned-home-after-going-missing-in-vietnam-54-years-ago/
rangerrebew:
:flag:
PeteS in CA:
They were buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, the burial place of Admirals Nimitz, Spruance, and Lockwood, and of countless "ordinary" seamen and PFCs.
sneakypete:
--- Quote ---Although an aerial search and rescue effort located the crash site, there was no sign that either airman survived. Moreover, heavy enemy activity in the area prevented a ground search. A subsequent investigation revealed that De Soto and Hall's Phantom crashed into a mountain ridge.
--- End quote ---
@rangerrebew
Code for they were flying bombing missions inside Laos,Cambodia,or North VN.
"We" (the US Military) almost always sent in teams to try to rescue shot-down pilots regardless of where they were flying when shot down,but not when they were shot down in Laos,Cambodia,or North VN,and "overflies" indicated there was no chance of their being any survivors.
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