UNKNOWN REMAINS IDENTIFIED AS PILOT'S.Byline: Steven Lee Myers The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times The remains of an unidentified American serviceman from the Vietnam War Vietnam War, conflict in Southeast Asia, primarily fought in South Vietnam between government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla forces aided by North Vietnam. , buried beneath the Tomb of the Unknowns Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery; commemorates nameless war dead. [Am. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 1118] See : Burial Ground in Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery, 420 acres (170 hectares), N Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.; est. 1864. More than 60,000 American war dead, as well as notables including Presidents William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy, Gen. John J. 14 years ago, are no longer unknown. They belong to 1st Lt. Michael Blassie, an Air Force pilot whose attack jet crashed on May 11, 1972, near a village in South Vietnam called An Loc. He was 24 at the time and ever since has, officially, been considered missing in action. A new type of genetic test - not available when President Reagan honored the unknown soldier from the Vietnam War at a symbolic state funeral on Memorial Day 1984 - has matched DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. taken from the remains with DNA from Blassie's mother, officials at the Pentagon said Monday. The Pentagon removed the remains from the Tomb of the Unknowns last month after a lengthy investigation ordered by Secretary of Defense William Cohen concluded that the remains very likely belonged to one of nine Americans killed in Vietnam, including Blassie. The lieutenant's family had urged the Pentagon to conduct the DNA tests after news reports raised questions about the identity of the Unknown Soldier. Cohen cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. , who presided over the disinterment at what is one of the nation's most revered memorials, just across the Potomac River from Washington, is scheduled to announce the results at the Pentagon today, but the families of the nine missing Americans were notified by telephone on Monday. The lieutenant's family declined on Monday night to comment until it received official confirmation of the Pentagon's findings. The Blassies have said they wanted to take Blassie's remains home to the suburbs of St. Louis, where he was reared. They have said they want to bury him at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, is an American military cemetery located in Saint Louis County, Missouri, just on the banks of the Mississippi River. The cemetery was established after the American Civil War in an attempt to put together a formal network of military , near the grave of his father, George, a veteran of World War II who died in 1991. The identification of the remains, which until last month lay with unknown soldiers from the two World Wars and the Korean War Korean War, conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces in Korea from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. At the end of World War II, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet (North Korean) and U.S. (South Korean) zones of occupation. , has now raised the possibility that there will not be another set of remains put in the tomb. Officials at the Pentagon have already begun to ask whether there should even be a new search for an unknown soldier. Blassie, a graduate of the Air Force Academy, died when his A-37B attack jet crashed in flames outside An Loc, a hotly contested village near the border with Cambodia. Because of the intense fighting, the site of the crash could not be searched and his remains recovered. It was not until five months later that a South Vietnamese patrol reached the spot and recovered four ribs, the right humerus humerus: see arm. and part of the pelvis, as well as a collection of personal items, including Blassie's identification card and remnants of a flight suit. Using the new tests, which were approved for use only in 1995, the Pentagon compared a sample of mitochondrial DNA removed from the pelvis last month with samples from maternal relatives of eight of the nine. (There was no maternal relative of the ninth.) The sample matched Blassie's mother, Jean. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (Color) U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie is shown in this 1971 photo made during flight training. Associated Press |
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