Tonight we honor ten who were killed while in the US military. The first was a young man from New York who died recently in Afghanistan. The others have been gone much longer.
Forty-two years of waiting came to an end when surviving family members attended a burial at Arlington National Cemetery for a group of nine crewmen. The crew was aboard a cargo plane that crashed on the Vietnam-Laos border at the height of the Vietnam War.
The plane was dropping flares on a night mission for US bombers. It disappeared without a distress call. The crewmembers were declared Missing in Action (MIA), until 2002 when a military team found the wreckage. Excavations revealed remains, and personal affects. Military personnel were able to identify remains that could be traced to 5 of the 9 crewmembers and those were turned over to the families for separate burial.
When a loved one dies, every time their birthday comes around, it makes you sad. It must be worse for those who don’t know where, when, or how that person died. Now that the airmen have been laid to rest under bright sunny skies in Arlington, there is some closure for those who loved them and somewhere they can go to wish the men they loved a "Happy Birthday"
Lance Corporal Michael G. Plank
Michael G. Plank was born in Corning, New York. He grew up in the tiny hamlets of Cameron Mills and Rathbone in New York. He attended Addison schools before he transferred in August 2003 to Elkland High School for his senior year.
Plank entered the Marine Corps on February 23, 2009. He was assigned to the 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, California. Lance Corporal Michael Plank started his first tour of duty in March to Afghanistan as a combat engineer. He was scheduled to return home in October or November. According to the Star Gazette site:
"He told me he loved it there, in Rathbone. He was always hunting and fishing and stuff. He loved the spring water there."
He said Lance Cpl. Plank, who was single, hoped to buy land and build a home there some day. Jerry Plank said his brother was proud to serve.
"He didn't want to go (to Afghanistan), but he was pretty good at what he did and he was confident," he said. "He was dedicated to the core to the Marine Corps."
Michael G. Plank died June 9th while supporting combat operations in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. He was 25 years old. His family was told the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, but the military did not release any details of his death because the incident is still under investigation.
Plank is survived by brothers Jerry and Dominic Plank; his mother, Kathleen Parker of Cameron Mills; his father, Gerald Plank of Lawrenceville, Pa.; and two nephews.
Plans are being made to have Lance Corporal Plank buried in Rathbone at the Northrup Street Cemetery. The cemetery is about 100 yards from where Plank lived before he went to war as a US Marine. He will now spend eternity near the hometown that he loved.
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The "Trash Haulers" on Blind Bat 01
The Lockheed C130 Hercules aircraft was a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. In the hands of the "trash haulers", as the crews of Tactical Air Command transports called themselves, the C130 proved to be a valuable airlift instrument in the Southeast Asian "conflict". When the C130 couldn't land, it dropped its payload by parachute.
On May 22, 1968, nine airmen were aboard a C-130A Hercules on an evening flare mission over northern Salavan Province, Laos. Fifteen minutes after the aircraft made a radio call, the crew of another US aircraft observed a large ground fire near the last known location of the aircraft. Search and rescue attempts were not possible due to heavy anti-aircraft fire.
The Task Force Omega site gives a timeline of reports about the aircraft, "Blind Bat 01" that night:
At 2055 hours Blind Bat 01 made its last radio contact with the airborne mission command and control center as it was orbiting the target area. At that time the aircraft was positioned near the city of Muong Nong and there was no indication of trouble.
By 2125 hours, the airborne command and control center was unable to raise Blind Bat 01 on the radio, another C130A, call sign Blind Bat 02, was called in to investigate non-contact with Blind Bat 01 and it arrived onsite 15 minutes later. Blind Bat 02 found a large fire on the ground, but when they attempted to investigate the fire, they were driven off by enemy anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) fire. Another aircraft was called in to participate in the aerial search that was equipped with night photography equipment. The photographs it took could not confirm whether or not the fire was associated with an aircraft crash site, but the photo interpreters were of the opinion that the circular fire resembled that of a crashed aircraft. The photography showed no evidence of any parachutes on the ground, and none of the aircrews heard mayday calls or emergency beeper signals emanating from the jungle below.
Because of a lack of any positive evidence of survivors, aircraft wreckage or beepers, no formal search and rescue (SAR) effort was initiated. However, aerial photographs were taken the following day. Again, there was no indication of aircraft wreckage, and the fire burning on the ground the night before had been extinguished. Likewise, there were no signs of survivors in or around the area. At the time the aerial search effort was terminated, Jerry Chambers, William Mason, Thomas Knebel, John Adam, William McPhail, Gary Pate, Melvin Rash and Calvin Glover were listed Missing In Action.
Analysts from DPMO worked on the case with information spanning more than 40 years. Through interviews with eyewitnesses and research in the National Archives, several locations in Laos and South Vietnam were pinpointed as potential crash sites. Between 1989 and 2008, teams from Laos People’s Democratic Republic and Vietnam, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, pursued leads, interviewed villagers, and conducted field investigations and excavations. They recovered aircraft wreckage, human remains, crew-related equipment, and personal effects.
Scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of the crewmembers’ families – as well as dental comparisons in the identification of the remains.
Since late 1973, the remains of 927 Americans killed in the Vietnam War have been identified and returned to their families. 1,719 service members still remain missing from the conflict.
Those buried as a group on June 10th, 2010 in Arlington National Cemetery were:
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Air Force Col. William H. Mason, Camden, Arkansas
born October 12th, 1924 |
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Air Force Lt. Col. Jerry L. Chambers, Muskogee, Oklahoma
born October 12th, 1932 |
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Air Force Maj. William T. McPhail, Chattanooga, Tennessee
born June 5th, 1939
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Air Force Maj. Thomas B. Mitchell, Littleton, Colorado
born March 31st, 1941 |
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Air Force Chief Master Sgt. John Q. Adam, Bethel, Kansas
born December 22nd, 1947 |
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Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Calvin C. Glover, Steubenville, Ohio
born January 7th, 1938 |
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Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Thomas E. Knebel, Midway, Arkansas
born June 11th, 1947 |
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Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Melvin D. Rash, Yorktown, Virginia
born June 8th, 1946 |
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Air Force Master Sgt. Gary Pate, Brooks, Georgia
born June 3rd, 1946 |
We welcome home our brothers, who were lost and now are found; may they have eternal peace
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Helping our troops:
If you wish to assist our military and their families, consider Operation Helmet, or Fisher House. Sponsoring a deployed service member at US Troop Care Package can provide letters or care packages that make a real difference in a military person's life. To assist the animal companions of our deployed military, information is available here. Also, you could visit:
When our veterans come back home, they need jobs. Look at the programs of Hire Heroes USA and Welcome Back Veterans to see if you can help out. The new KINship Project has also been of help to our veterans and other Kossacks In Need.
About the IGTNT series:
"I Got the News Today" is a diary series intended to honor, respect, and remind us of the sacrifice of our US troops. Click here to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and which is maintained by Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, noweasels, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, SpamNunn, a girl in MI, JeNoCo, Mediaprof, TrueBlueMajority, JanosNation, Proud Mom and Grandma, Ministry of Truth, and CalNM. These diaries are heartbreaking to write, but are an important service to those who have died, and show our community’s respect for them.
Fallen service members whose names have been released by the US Department of Defense will usually be diaried two days after the official announcement on the DoD website. This allows the IGTNT team to cover each person more fully, but still in a timely manner
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Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members mentioned here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.