My Dad turns 72 tomorrow and we were talking today about his friends that he lost in Nam. I found out that they had recovered LTC Hamilton's remains last year and he is now interred at Arlington. After 40 years, I think he is owed this spot: http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/h/h009.htm HAMILTON, EUGENE DAVIDRemains Identified - see textName: Eugene David HamiltonBranch/Rank: United States Air Force/O3Unit: Date of Birth: 18 December 1934Home City of Record: PEPPERALL ALDate of Loss: 31 January 1966Country of Loss: North VietnamLoss Coordinates: 183000 North 1054900 EastStatus (in 1973): Presumptive Finding of DeathCategory: 2Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F105D #0210Missions:Other Personnel in Incident:Refno: 0243Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: rawdata from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIAfamilies, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined ActionCombat Casualty File.REMARKS:CACCF/CRASH/PILOTNo further information available at this time.-----------------National League of FamiliesPOW/MIA UPDATE: November 17, 2005AMERICAN ACCOUNTED FOR: Initially listed as MIA on January 31, 1966, CaptainEugene D. Hamilton, USAF, of Alabama, the remains of this officer wererepatriated March 4, 2005 and identified October 10th. There are now 1,814Americans listed by the Defense Department as missing and unaccounted forfrom the Vietnam War - 1,380 in Vietnam, 372 in Laos, 55 in Cambodia and 7in PRC territorial waters. Though others have been identified and not yetannounced, over 90% of these US personnel were lost in Vietnam or in areasof Laos and Cambodia controlled by Vietnam.No. 094-06February 3, 2006Air Force Officer MIA from Vietnam War is IdentifiedThe Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announcedtoday that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from theVietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family forburial with full military honors.He is Col. Eugene D. Hamilton of Opelika, Ala. Final arrangements for hisfuneral have not been set.On Jan. 31, 1966, Hamilton was flying an armed reconnaissance mission overNorth Vietnam when his F-105D `Thunderchief' was hit by enemy ground fireover Ha Tinh province. His mission was part of a larger operation, known asOperation Rolling Thunder, which attacked air defense systems and the flowof supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.Airborne searches for his crash site that day were unsuccessful. A radiobroadcast from Hanoi reported an F-105 had been shot down but did notprovide any details.Between July 1993 and November 2000, joint U.S.-Vietnam teams, led by theJoint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted four investigations andone excavation searching for the pilot and his plane.An investigation team in March 2000 learned from a Vietnamese villager thatan area excavated in 1997 was not the location of the pilot's burial. Asecond location was then excavated in August and September 2000, which didyield aircraft wreckage, personal effects and human remains.In 2004, three Vietnamese citizens turned over to a JPAC team remains theyhad found at the same crash site a year earlier.In late May 2005, the JPAC team recovered fragments of possible humanremains and life support equipment from the 2000 crash site. Personaleffects found there also included a leather nametag with the name "HAMILTON"partially visible on it.JPAC scientists and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory specialistsused mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to help identify theremains. Laboratory analysis of dental remains also confirmed his identity.Of those Americans unaccounted-for from all conflicts, 1,807 are from theVietnam War, with 1,382 of those within the country of Vietnam. Another 839Americans have been accounted-for in Southeast Asia since the end of thewar, with 599 from 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.
I'm glad this one returned. The story takes me back... I'm 52 and remember when the first POW/MIA silver bracelets became visible. I know folks, vietnam vets and non-vets who still wear them. In memory, I retreat to my teenage years every time I see one. A time when I understood neither the cause, nor the sacrifice. I wish I could understand it now. :usaflagwa I was 1-A in 1971 and got lucky. I won the lottery. :usaflagwa
Thanks for sharing that with us. You are absolutely right, we do owe him this and you're a good son to do this for your Dad. What a story to tell your kids, grandkids, one day. My brother was in Vietnam, I was in high school when he went. I know that he left a young, full of life human being and came back as a man that looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. It changed who he was and we've only gotten him to talk about it a few times that I can remember. I'm sure that your dad thinks about that alot, the fact that he came home and some didn't. Tell him I said Happy Birthday!
