American servicemen remains from helicopter crash to arrive in Hawaii Friday

CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii - Admiral Dennis C. Blair, Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command, will speak at a ceremony honoring the seven U.S. servicemen who died in a helicopter crash Saturday in Vietnam, 1:30 p.m. Friday at Hickam Air Force Base. The U.S. servicemen and nine Vietnamese were onboard a Vietnamese MI-17 helicopter when it crashed Saturday, April 7, in Quang Bing Province, Vietnam, which is 250 miles south of Hanoi. They were conducting operations in preparation for the 65th Joint Field Activity. Joint Field Activites are month-long operations held four times a year in Vietnam to recover and return the remains of American servicemen still unaccounted for as a result of the Vietnam War. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Information about the U.S. government’s worldwide full-accounting mission can be found on the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Affairs Office website at www.dtic.mil/dpmo.

Note: Media interested in covering the repatriation ceremony should contact 2nd Lt. Christopher Anderson at the Hickam Public Affairs Office at 449-6368. News media wishing to attend the ceremony at Hickam AFB must be at the Hickam front gate no later than 12:15 p.m. Apr. 13. Hickam Public Affairs will escort news media to the ceremony location.