Family gives update on missing serviceman

By GWEN RODENBERGER – Editor: News and Review in White County, Indiana

Forty-nine years ago, A1C Dean DuVall, of Buffalo, IN along with his fellow crewmen, departed in a "Spooky"- an AC47D from an air base in Vietnam for a military mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Twenty-two minutes later the pilot radioed in during a routine check that everything was fine. That was the last anyone ever heard from the plane or its crewmen again.

Since then the DuVall family has sought closure. Dean is one of more than 1,400 servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam War. The U.S. military has worked toward the same goal, in a continuing effort to bring back the remains of servicemen and women who went missing.

Last month Jack DuVall, of Buffalo, Dean's brother, presented the results of excavations of the AC-47D's crash site - and the search for Dean and his fellow crewmen - during a special gathering at Sitka Baptist Church.

DuVall and his sister, Kay DuVall Martinez, told the audience that when they were informed Dean was missing, they were instructed to keep quiet. They found out the reason years later. The plane was routed over Laos, which at the time was considered a neutral country. "We were never there.” Martinez said.

With a thick three-ring binder of results released from the military they can now talk.

The plane's remains were found in Xekong Province in the southern portion of Laos. In 1997, the military's research of crash sites with the Laotian people led to finding the plane's location.

The Laotian government, however, remains suspicious of Americans since the war. Excavations can only last for 30 days and only be done during certain times of the year. Once the 30 days are up, negotiations can begin on returning to the site. American helicopters are forbidden, so the archeological crews used helicopters from New Zealand.

Excavations began in October-November 2010. Follow-up excavations were in 2011, 2013 and 2014 - 2012 was skipped due to sequestration, when the federal government partially shut down. Most government workers only worked four days a week, which made excavations impossible, DuVall explained.

The plane, full of ammunition and virtually full of fuel, flew at a low angle into the side of a sand mountain, causing the propellers to dig deeply into the mountainside. Between the resulting explosion and the very acidic soil, few personal effects could be collected. Only a dental bridge and a molar belonging to Edwin Morgan, the plane's load master, are the only remains that are identifiable. A small bone fragment and another tooth was found, but they are so degraded no DNA can be extracted using current technology, to identify the person or persons they may belong to, DuVall said.

Some personal effects were found as well - dog tags, ID cards and Geneva Convention cards, pieces of watches, a helmet fragment with a name on it, lighters, keys, pennies, pocket knives, a can opener, a leather wallet that protected the paper effects of crew chief Eugene Davis from the acidic soil, and parts of a pocket compass. But nothing was recovered that could be identified as belonging to his brother, DuVall said.

Because several of the items could be identified as belonging to other members of the crew and because the site has been completely excavated and no more artifacts were found when the military expanded the dig outside the crash area, DuVall said the family is coming to terms with the fact that the mountainside in Laos is Dean's final resting place.

"We know a whole lot more than we did 49 years ago.” Martinez said. "It's not over for us. It is, but it's not.”

DuVall said a branch of the CIA continues to work in Southeast Asia, following up on any leads the staff is given. However, there's no evidence any Americans remain alive over there.

Morgan's surviving family will be escorting his remains from Hawaii, where it was taken when the crews left the crash site, and he will have a burial near his home.

DuVall and Martinez, however, do not have a body, but they and the rest of their family are working on plans for a memorial service. What kind of memorial service and when are questions they have not answered yet, he said. But they hope to schedule a service for their brother in the next few months, who posthumously received the Distinguished Flying Cross and was promoted to chief master sergeant.

Dean Arnold Duvall