The unknowns from World War I and World War II are another story for now, but anything is possible. I think that barring a complete abolition of war, this is a small consolation. Id left school early that day, and I looked out the window when I heard a car door slam. Hey there beautiful nerd! We wanted the entire truth, but they couldnt tell us that., The official designation was KIABNRKilled in Action, Body not Recovered., My father served in Normandy during World War II and he never got over losing Michael, Patricia recalls. It was a South Vietnamese Army patrol that scoured the crash site and came back with six bone fragments, a Beacon radio, two compasses, an American flag, a parachute, remnants of a pistol holder, a one-man life raft, fragments of a flight suit, a wallet with family pictures, and an ID that read: 1st Lt. Blassie, Michael Joseph., Air Force equipment found with Michael Blassie: dog tag chain fragment, signal marker pouch, match holder, parachute survival guide, and ammunition pouch (Blassie family). Tonight: Occasional mixed rain and snow. After graduating from St. Louis University High School he entered the United States Air Force Academy, graduating in 1970. Out of the fog of war comes another version of the incident, one in which Michaels Dragonfly inverts upside down, and Michael ejects from the stricken aircraft. By the time the package arrived in Hawaii, the wallet and ID were missing, presumed stolen during storage or transit. First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie, 24, was shot down over South Vietnam in 1972 and presumed dead. How to honor unidentified remains has always been one of the great conundrums of war. (AP Photo/James A. Finley), Lt. Michael J. Blassie is shown in this undated 1971 file photo made during flight training. Parnell wrapped the remains with the effects and held them overnight. That's where he fell in love with flying, Pat Blassie said. Required fields are marked *, 99% Invisible Thanks Dennis! . Prior to the identification of his remains, Blassie was the unknown service member from the Vietnam War buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. English After Years As Vietnam 'Unknown,' Pilot Now Buried At Home. Thanks for your help! There was an error deleting this problem. With the invention of the polymerase chain reaction in 1985, DNA analysis moved to the forefront of forensic technologies. They were completely cut off from the rest of the world. Well, my mom cant get these kinds of phone calls, responded Patricia. Patricia was proud also when he headed off to Vietnam six years later. To many Vietnam veterans, Patricia explains, it was pretty upsetting to have the Vietnam Unknown disinterred. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. I know about Ted Sampleys past, he told her, but I believe its true.. f\j Weather. Whatever was known about the remains of the Vietnam Unknown had never been revealed. memorial page for 1LT Michael Joseph Blassie (4 Apr 1948-11 May 1972), Find a Grave Memorial ID 4245, citing Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Lemay . Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? ", 1998 The Associated Press. During my only visit to the Tomb of the Unknowns, during the changing of the guard, I witnessed what may be a rare event. . The enemy threw up what was described as a murderous hail of fire which prevented any rescue or recovery attempt. For Pat Blassie, Michael's sister, the once unknown soldier still is a symbol for the country. DNA tests confirmed that the previously unknown soldier was, in fact, Michael Blassie. Blassie was born in St. Louis in 1948. It was so exciting, she says. Improvements in evacuation, recordkeeping, and forensic science meant that almost all US remains recovered from combat zones were identified. display: block; He connected the dots for the Blassies over the phone. (AP Photo/Brian K. Diggs), In thisJune, 30, 1998, photo,Joan Blassie, right, the mother of the Michael Blassie reacts to the news that the remains in the Tomb of Unknowns were confirmed by DNA testing as belonging to her son Lt. Michael Blassie, who was shot down over Vietnam. [3] After Blassie's family secured permission, the remains were exhumed on May 14, 1998. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. In October of 1972, over five months after Blassies plane had disappeared into the jungle, Calhoon assembled a South Vietnamese patrol to enter North Vietnamese territory to find the wreckage. Thats when a Vietnam veteran and former Green Beret named Ted Sampley called Patricias mother out of the blue. Real soldiers visiting the tomb have a very different perspective on this memorial than I could hope to imagine. As is standard, all records pertaining to these remains were destroyed. Members of the United States Air Force Color guard carry the casket containing the remains of Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie on July 10, 1998 at Scott Air Force Base. Family members linked to this person will appear here. The first time, he was killed, his aircraft shot down while flying a mission during the Vietnam War in 1972. The remains were eventually sent to a search and recovery center in Thailand before being forwarded to the Army's central identification lab in Hawaii. His body wouldnt be coming home. The file that Vince discovered made it clear the the person who had been put in the tomb in 1984 had been far from unknown. But instead of giving closure, the remains endured one of the most baffling episodes of misidentification in military history. (2006): Identification of Human Remains. A neighbor came over to get me, saying, Pat, you need to go inside. So I did and knew something was horribly wrong. Some evidence suggests that the remains ceremonially laid to rest by President Reagan 14 years ago belong to 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, a decorated flier still officially listed as missing in . Please reset your password. This browser does not support getting your location. I think I know where Michael is, he said, producing a paper trail that led to Arlington Cemetery. The remains were then sent to Travis Air Force Base on May 24 and arrived at Andrews Air Force Base the following day. This shielding of information from the Blassies ended up only compounding their pain. Family and friends are welcome to send flowers or leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with . St. Louis native Michael Blassie was the picture of an ideal young Air Force officer: tall, handsome, with a hospitable grin and approachable demeanor. There, a plaque holds words from. display: none; By 1994, Patricia had risen from Airman Basic to Captain and was working in the Pentagon in Public Affairs. Blassie, a 24-year-old first lieutenant, had been missing since May 11, 1972, when his A-37 fighter was shot down over An Loc during a bombing run. Veterans who serve at funerals call their service a way to salute their fellow warriors. That Michael might be in the Tomb of the Unknown . Patricia was 13 years old when the Air Force chaplain knocked on their door to deliver the news of Michaels death. His 138th combat mission ended near An Loc, South Vietnam, when the wing was blasted off his plane by enemy fire. based on information from your browser. On May 11, Communist forces unleashed an all-out assault to take An Lc. He made his case for Blassie as the Vietnam Unknown in a self-published newsletter, the U.S. They petitioned the Department of Defense to open the site and conduct DNA testing, a technology that had been unavailable . The remains and associated materials were eventually turned over to the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii for analysis and identification. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) differs from nuclear DNA because human beings inherit mtDNA solely from the mother and share this information with siblings and maternal relatives. They never got updates on recovery efforts. And you didnt mention the shoes the specially designed shoes the sentries wear are pretty cool. Major James Connally, Blassies flight commander, described the tragic incident in a letter to Michaels parents: Mikes plane was hit and began streaming fuel. Even though they were still officially believed to belong to Blassie, the lab was ordered to strip the remains of their believed to be designation, and give them the anonymous designation X-26. Saint Louis, St. Louis City, Missouri, USA. Patricia Blassie took the information to officials at the Air Force Casualty Office. GREAT NEWS! You are nearing the transfer limit for memorials managed by Find a Grave. On the other, if he destroyed Blassies personal effects, he might condemn Blassies remains to permanent oblivion. When it came to tracking MIAs, Sampley was shrewd and tireless. One of the most memorable actors ever almost gave it up to be an Air Force pilot. After his remains were identified by DNA testing in 1998, they were reburied at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis County, Missouri. Revealing the Unknown: The Mystery of Michael Blassie | Missouri Historical Society 1st Lt. Michael Blassie was killed in action during the Vietnam War, but his remains were unrecovered because the fighting was so intense in the area where his plane crashed. There, Captain Richard S. Hess of Mortuary Affairs inventoried the package and added a skeletal chart showing the bones locations on the body (right humerus, right pelvis, and four rib bones). Prior to the identification of his remains, Blassie was the unknown service member from the Vietnam War buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Its just an outsiders way of honoring all of your sacrifices. Then, in January 1972, he joined the 8th Special Operations Squadron of the 377th Air Base Wing at Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon. We wanted to know the rest of the story. They interviewed Parnell, by then a retired Colonel living in Florida. "X-26" remained in Arlington with his unknown comrades, watched by the solemn Old Guard, until 1998, when new questions about Blassie's whereabouts surfaced. Just to eliminate doubt, Patricia traveled to the Air Force Casualty Office at Randolph AFB in San Antonio to ask if there might be any truth to Sampleys claims. They were just looking out for him until he could go home. East wind * around 10 mph. After 26 years, the family of Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie, buried the pilot Saturday, ending a painful mystery that began in 1972. On May 14, 1998, the Department of the Defense disinterred the remains of the Vietnam veteran from the Tomb of the Unknowns. Michael Blassie The Final Mission. It was his 138th combat mission. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be merged. Thanks to improved forensics, there will likely never be an unknown from Iraq or Afghanistan or any future war. The remains would eventually arrive at the Armys Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, but not before thewallet which was critical in linking the remains to Blassie went missing. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. He served as a Tactical Aircraft Pilot and was assigned to the 8TH SPECIAL OPS SQDN, 377TH AIR BASE WING, 7TH AF. United States Air Force Vietnam Veteran. Hurtful also were the objections she and her family received from Vietnam veterans, who resented the Blassies for taking away their Unknown. 1894 shipwreck found in Lake Huron, confirming "powerful, tragic story" There is a problem with your email/password. That was enough for Captain Patricia Blassie. Blassie, 24, an Air Force Academy graduate and the oldest of the five children of a St. Louis meat cutter, was flying an A-37 when he was shot down over An Loc, about 60 miles north of Saigon in South Vietnam, on May 11, 1972. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. The president meant to assure families of soldiers with MIA status that their loved ones would not be forgotten, but his words were prescient of the Vietnam unknown's fate. Your donations are vital to keeping us independent and strong! If he couldnt do it, Webb would be ordered to sign off on the burial. What is the music played at the end of this podcast? Im curious how the remains werent identifiable as Michael Blassie if he was the only remaining unidentified serviceman from the war. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. His remains were buried in Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of The Unknowns as an unidentified soldier from the Vietnam War. Human beings have copies of DNA from each biological parent, stored in the nucleus of every cell. Many thanks for such a great show, this episode and all the others~ His jet lost a wing, crashed and burned. He was constantly researching, protesting, and pressuring the Pentagon to resolve open cases. Instead, they were simply designated as BTB believed to be Michael Blassie. Privacy Policy & Terms of Service. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Michael Blassie (4245)? There were fewer than 25,000 US servicemen left in Vietnam, as opposed to the over 500,000 who had been deployed by the late 1960s. They were initially classified as belonging to Lt. Blassie. After the war, Railton advocated for a grave bearing the body of a single soldier to bring the impossibly large tragedy down to a human scale. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. It was all part of the effort to make sure that the Unknown could represent everyone who ever fought in the war. I saluted smartly and put the thought aside. He subsequently qualified as an A-37 Dragonfly pilot and served as a member of the 8th Special Operations Squadron, deployed to Southeast Asia. Railton would spend his nights conducting funeral services over the often unidentifiable remains of soldiers ripped apart by shellfire, sometimes burying them on the spot or en masse in the giant craters the shells had left behind. First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie, 24, was shot down over South Vietnam in 1972 and presumed dead. #inline-recirc-item--id-91b39784-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { William S. Cohen, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 1998. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. Parnell soon turned the remains over to the Saigon mortuary, along with the ID card and other items. Blassies was A positive. Blassie's remains, which had been buried in the Tomb of the . The gravesite of 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on Thursday, June 13, 2013. On May 14, 1998, the remains were exhumed and tested, revealing the "unknown" soldier to be Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie. The last day we took him to the airport, Michael looked back at us and waved. I assume now he was meaning in America but i immediately thought to other Countries national Monuments. The Blassie family watches as their family member Michael, is unloaded from a C-130 Hercules cargo plane, July 10. A hunch told him there might be something to Sampleys claims, and he began his own investigation. Family and friends are welcome to send flowers or leave their condolences on . The bones were taken to the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, where officials said they were "believed to be" those of Blassie. Western reporters called it a mini-Stalingrad, the ugliest kind of siege warfare. Three years later, in 1997, Vince Gonzales, a young correspondent with CBS News, contacted the Blassies. Jean Frances Blassie died 15 years later, on Tuesday (June 11, 2013), at Mercy Hospital St. Louis in Creve Coeur. Jump to: Bio graphy Family Photos Comments Obit uary. Captain Parnell wrapped the remains, and the other items found at the crash site, in plastic and held them overnight. Defense Secretary William Cohen announced that the remains would be disinterred and the DNA tested. Over the next month, enemy forces cinched the noose, pounding the city with artillery and attempting to starve out the population. Blassie, who was killed in Vietnam. At 67, Mrs. Blassie went back to work as a sales clerk at Dillards. You can always change this later in your Account settings. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid George, the youngest son, said that being buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns was a great honor and that maybe the family should leave Michael there. You can watch his conversation with Colonel Patricia Blassie on A Veterans Story on the VBCs YouTube channel, youtube.com/veteransbreakfastclub. She attended Wellston High School but left after three years to work as a nurses aide at DePaul Hospital. Mrs. The DNA technology that could conclusively identify the remains was just around the corner, but in 1984 they were ordered to prepare X-26 for burial. In: Spitz, W.U. But in 1956, one small, seemingly innocent change to the formula of the Unknown would prove problematic: we began to add another set of unidentified remains for every subsequent war. On 11 May 1972 the city of An Loc SVN was under attack by North Vietnamese forces during the so-called Spring Offensive. In 1991 the Department of Defense founded the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL). 1972 and presumed dead back to work as a nurses aide at DePaul Hospital to the special... 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