CHERRY, ALLEN SHELDON
REMAINS IDENTIFIED 15 JULY 1999

Name: Allen Sheldon Cherry
Branch/Rank: United States Air Force/O3
Unit:
Date of Birth: 09/14/1936
Home City of Record: UNIVERSITY CITY MO
Date of Loss: 09 August 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 192158 North  1040757 East
Status (in 1973): Killed In Action/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A1E #132678
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno: 0788

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined Action
Combat Casualty File. Updated 2005

REMARKS:

CACCF CRASH/PILOT  8 YRS United States Air Force

No further information available at this time.

====================================================

http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/020105/tp7np19.htm?date=020105&story=tp7np19.htm
02/01/05
Search for missing soldier's kin lost in 44-year mystery

He was in the Army. He was 39 years old. He lived in New Hampshire. He
disappeared in Laos in 1971.

And he's never been found.

For more than 40 years, that's all Russi Arden knew about Lt. Col. Sheldon
John Burnett, the man whose name is engraved in silver on the red MIA
bracelet she bought for $10 four decades ago.

"I had no idea who he was," Arden said. "I didn't know anything about him,
although I wondered all the time."

A "sudden inspiration" spurred Arden, 63, of Lake Suzy, to find Burnett's
family and return the bracelet to them.

"It would certainly be a treasured object," she said.

Burnett's MIA bracelet was one of more than five million produced to support
troops reported as Missing In Action during the Vietnam Era.

Arden's search to find Burnett's relatives has uncovered parallels between
the missing soldier's family and her own, and revived unanswered questions
about America's Vietnam-Era involvement in Laos -- and the fate of those who
remain missing there.

Lost and Found

On Aug. 6, 1967, Arden's first husband, Air Force Capt. Allen Cherry, was
reported missing after his A-1E Skyraider crashed in North Vietnam.

Arden, living in Detroit with her parents and two children, recalls how a
chaplain and two officers came to her door to break the news.

"They said he was killed in action," she said. "His commanding officer saw
his jet go down and crash in a ball of fire."

Yet, because his remains were not recovered, Cherry was listed as MIA.

All uncertainty was erased in 1999 when remains found in 1997 were
identified by DNA tests as those of Cherry.

The confirmation came as a blow to his daughter, Lisa, who was 5 years old
when her father left for Vietnam.

"For years, she wouldn't believe her father was dead," Arden said. "It was
like losing him again."

The confirmation's stark reality was compounded by the loss of Cherry's
medals, missing after his son left them at a friend's house.

"His friend's family moved and we thought they were lost," Arden said.
"Years later, a woman came across them in box. Allen's name was on the back
of the medals."

The woman contacted the Detroit Free Press, which wrote a story about the
medals.

"That's how I got the medals back," Arden said, "so I know how a newspaper
story can get results."

She's hoping the same exposure will allow her to find Burnett's relatives so
she can give the bracelet to them........

(article clipped)

By JOHN HAUGHEY
Staff Writer