US military buries airmen killed in ’65 crash over Laos

Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Va.

Ever since Sherrie Hassenger’s husband went missing with five other U.S. airmen over Laos in 1965, her purpose has been to wish and to hope he would come home.

When those men’s remains were buried in a single coffin Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, she said, some of that purpose was taken away.

“All I listen to is ’50s, ’60s music,” she said. “When I saw those Air Force men in those dress blues, just like back then, I just wanted to go up and hug them and kiss them. It felt like maybe I could find a piece of my husband in them.”

The charred remains of the six airmen — identified not through DNA matches but through dental records, personal items and other circumstantial evidence — were buried in a single coffin with full military honors, as is common in situations where remains can’t be conclusively linked to a specific individual.

The Air Force gave all six posthumous promotions, a spokeswoman said.

It was Christmas Eve 1965 when their Air Force plane, nicknamed “Spooky,” took off from Vietnam for a combat mission.

The crew sent out a “mayday” signal while flying over Laos, and after that, all contact was lost. Two days of searches turned up nothing. For nearly half a century, the airmen’s families endured an emotional kaleidoscope that they say is difficult to describe to those who never had to face it.

The men were listed for years as missing, and family members held out hope at first that their loved ones had survived. For most that hope faded over time, despite an occasional unconfirmed report that crew members were seen alive.

The crash site has been excavated several times over the past decade, but it was not until 2010 and 2011 that human remains were recovered.

Even though Sherrie Hassenger’s husband perhaps had the most conclusive identification of all six crew members — a tooth of Hassenger’s was recovered and matched through dental records — she and her son Keith Hassenger said they still have nagging doubts about what happened.

The service drew hundreds of people, including Air Force and Vietnam veterans unrelated to the families.

It is not uncommon in situations like these for joint sets of remains to buried at Arlington.

The Pentagon’s Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office lists more than 83,000 service members as missing in action, the vast majority from World War II.