WASHINGTON - The remains of a US navy pilot lost during the Vietnam War have been identified and returned to his family, the Pentagon announced Friday.
Lieutenant Commander J. Forrest G. Trembley of Spokane, Washington, will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on April 1 with full military honors, the Department of Defense statement said.
"On August 21, 1967, Trembley and his fellow crewman took off in their A-6A Intruder from the USS Constellation on a strike mission against the Duc Noi rail yards near Hanoi, North Vietnam," the statement said.
"The last radio message from Trembley indicated (Russian-made) MiGs were in hot pursuit, but no further communications were heard," the Pentagon said.
The People's Republic of China later reported that two US A-6s had been shot down over its territory. The Chinese released the surviving crewmen in 1973.
In the 1990s, a joint US-Chinese team interviewed a witness near the crash site who handed over Trembley's identification tag, the statement said. A team found some of the pilot's gear near a burial site along with some human remains, which were found to match Trembley's DNA.
03/26/2005 00:23 GMT