The remains of three U.S. soldiers previously unaccounted for from the Vietnam War were recently identified and buried as a group at Arlington National Cemetery.

They are Capt. Ronald D. Briggs, Philadelphia; Sgt. 1st Class Robert C. O'Hara, Lost Nation, Iowa; and Maj. David E. Padgett, Washington, Ind.

On Feb. 6, 1969, Padgett and O'Hara were crew members on a UH-1H Huey helicopter, flying Briggs and three other soldiers on an emergency re-supply mission in South Vietnam. While en route from a landing zone in the Quang Tri province, the crew radioed that the flight was returning due to poor weather conditions and reduced visibility. When the flight did not return, a search-and-rescue mission was initiated but was unsuccessful in locating the missing aircraft.

In December 1993, a joint U.S. and Vietnamese investigation team, led by the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, interviewed several local informants in Quang Tri province. One claimed to possess the remains of a missing U.S. serviceman. Two months later, the remains were repatriated to U.S. officials and submitted to the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI) for analysis.

On July 16, 1995, another joint U.S. and Vietnam team interviewed a witness who gave information about a helicopter crash site in the Huong Hoa District. After investigating the site, the team recovered aircraft debris, personal artifacts and human remains that corresponded to the missing aircraft and its crewmembers. The additional evidence also was transported to CILHI.

From July 1996 to October 1996, additional remains, personal artifacts and aircraft debris were recovered from the crash site. Some of the remains were submitted by CILHI to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory for mitochondrial DNA analysis. By analyzing dental records and comparing the DNA of skeletal fragments found at the crash site to that of maternal family members, CILHI scientists were able to identify the missing servicemen. The remains of three others from the same incident were previously identified.