vetsms9
07-18-2005, 07:43 AM
The mystery of what happended to a 'Fayetteville Soldier whose Plane disapppered in Vietnam more than three decades ago is over.
The military said Frdiay that it has identified remains found at a crash site as those of four soldiers - including Lt. Col. Marvin L. Foster of Fayetteville,- who disappeared March 16, 1969. Foster was one of five soldiers aboard an Army U-21A Ute aircraft as it flew from an airfield in the southern part of Vietnam to the PhuBai airport near Hue, but never arrived.
This is the day that I thought would never come said, Angela Foster, Marvin Foster's granddaughter. " I just didn't expect them to find him after 35 years. You don't think anybody is looking I guess.
According to the Pentagon, the Vietnamese goverment gave U.S. authorities boxes of unidentified human remains in the late 1980s. They also turned over ID tags for two soldiers who were on the plane, Sgt. 1st. Class Raymond E. Bobe and
Capt. David R. Smith the pilot. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command conducted seven investigations during the 1990s trying to locate the crash , and an excavation eventually began 25 miles northwest of the coastal city of DaNang in 2000. By this spring, specialists had confirmed the identities of Bobe and Smith, along with Foster and Sgt. 1st. Class Michael L. Batt using DNA from living relatives.
The fifth soldier remains unaccounted for.
Foster's family said he was a Special Forces soldier who enlsited in the Army shortly after the Pearl Harbor attacks. He met his future wife while stationed in Germany.
Debby Fraughton , one of the Fosters' three children, was 14 when her father left on his second deplayment to Vietnam. Her last communication from him was a postcard from Hawaii dated March 8, 1969.
Hand Salute!, RIP Brother ...
The military said Frdiay that it has identified remains found at a crash site as those of four soldiers - including Lt. Col. Marvin L. Foster of Fayetteville,- who disappeared March 16, 1969. Foster was one of five soldiers aboard an Army U-21A Ute aircraft as it flew from an airfield in the southern part of Vietnam to the PhuBai airport near Hue, but never arrived.
This is the day that I thought would never come said, Angela Foster, Marvin Foster's granddaughter. " I just didn't expect them to find him after 35 years. You don't think anybody is looking I guess.
According to the Pentagon, the Vietnamese goverment gave U.S. authorities boxes of unidentified human remains in the late 1980s. They also turned over ID tags for two soldiers who were on the plane, Sgt. 1st. Class Raymond E. Bobe and
Capt. David R. Smith the pilot. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command conducted seven investigations during the 1990s trying to locate the crash , and an excavation eventually began 25 miles northwest of the coastal city of DaNang in 2000. By this spring, specialists had confirmed the identities of Bobe and Smith, along with Foster and Sgt. 1st. Class Michael L. Batt using DNA from living relatives.
The fifth soldier remains unaccounted for.
Foster's family said he was a Special Forces soldier who enlsited in the Army shortly after the Pearl Harbor attacks. He met his future wife while stationed in Germany.
Debby Fraughton , one of the Fosters' three children, was 14 when her father left on his second deplayment to Vietnam. Her last communication from him was a postcard from Hawaii dated March 8, 1969.
Hand Salute!, RIP Brother ...