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News Release
Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (Public
Affairs)
Washington, DC 20301-2400
Nov. 16, 2007
MARINE MISSING
IN ACTION FROM THE VIETNAM WAR IS IDENTIFIED
The Department
of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today
that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from
the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to
his family for burial with full military honors.
He is Gunnery
Sgt. Richard W. Fischer, U.S. Marine Corps, of Madison, Wis. He
will be buried on Nov. 19 in Madison.
On Jan. 8, 1968,
Fischer was assigned to M Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines,
1st Marine Division, on an ambush patrol south of Da Nang in
Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. Fischer became separated from his
unit and subsequent attempts by his team members to locate him
were met with enemy fire.
In 1992 and
1993, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams,
led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted
three investigations and interviewed several Vietnamese
citizens. The citizens said that Fischer was killed by Viet
Cong and his remains were buried in a nearby cultivated field.
In 1994, a joint
team excavated the burial site and recovered human remains and
other material evidence including uniform buttons.
Among other
forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence,
scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification
Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of
Fischer’s remains.
For additional
information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for
missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo
or call (703) 509-1905. |