The family of an airman who was killed in action is getting some closure after more than four decades. On Saturday, the wife and children of Cpt. Walter Burke were presented with his dog tags at a Katy Veterans of Foreign Wars post. Burke's plane was shot down in Vietnam.
Several bodies were recovered from the crash site, but only one was identified leaving family members wondering what really happened to Burke.
Now with the dog tags, the family can find some closure.
"We had such a long period of time where we kind of tucked it away and this happened really fast so it's been kind of overwhelming and I don't think we've really had a chance to process,” Lauren Branch, Burke’s daughter, said Saturday.
The aircraft Burke was in was shot down on Feb. 5, 1969; the dog tag was subsequently found in Laos.
According to Air Force records, Burke was the third pilot on an EC-47 communications aircraft that departed Pleiku on a radio direction finding mission over Laos and failed to arrive at its destination.
Search and rescue efforts were begun when the aircraft failed to land at Hue-Phu Bai as scheduled and continued for six days without result. The ten crewmen aboard the aircraft were initially classified as Missing in Action.
In December of 1969, the plane’s wreckage was found near Ban Phan Laos. The remains of the crewmen were recovered and subsequently interred in a communal grave at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis.
Monday 19 November 2012
http://www.khou.com/news/local/Family-presented-with-Vietnam-veterans-dog-tags-after-4-decades-179862791.html
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