MOSSMAN, HARRY SEEBER Remains Identified Spring 2004
Name: Harry Seeber Mossman Rank/Branch: O3/US Navy Unit: Attack Squadron 52, USS KITTY HAWK (CVA 63) Date of Birth: 30 June 1943 (Augusta ME) Home City of Record: Manhasset NY (Family in PA) Date of Loss: 20 August 1972 Country of Loss: North Vietnam/Over Water Loss Coordinates: 210000N 1054500E Status (in 1973): Missing In Action Category: 2 Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A6A Refno: 1912 Other Personnel In Incident: Roderick B. Lester (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 2004.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: The Commander of the 7th Fleet once remarked that the low level missions over Hanoi and Haiphong that the A6 pilots were sent on were among the most demanding ever asked of Navy pilots. He added that it was fortunate that these A6 pilots were among the most talented in the military.
LTJG Roderick B. Lester was a seasoned pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 52 onboard the aircraft carrier USS KITTY HAWK. On August 20, Lester launched on his 144th mission with his Bombardier/Navigator (BN) Lt. Harry S. Mossman, in their A6A Intruder attack aircraft on a night, low-level, armed reconnaissance mission in the general vicinity of Cam Pha, North Vietnam.
During their mission, a brief radio transmision from the aircraft was received, "Let's get the hell out of here." The transmission was felt to indicate the planned flight path was being aborted because of heavy enemy fire. At the same time, another air crew on the mission noted a flash of light under the 1,000 foot overcast in the same general vicinity of their aircraft location. The aircraft was last tracked over Hanoi, North Vietnam.
Weather was poor, with numerous thunderstorms which made the source of the flash of light difficult to determine. Electronic surveillance was begun. A visual search of the area noted accurate gunfire. Further search was negative.
Lester and Mossman did not return from the mission, and were placed in a Missing in Action status. The area of their last known locaton was heavily populated, and there is every reason to believe that the Vietnamese could account for the two - alive or dead, yet the Vietnamese have given no added information on them.
When the war ended, refugees from the communist-overrun countries of Southeast Asia began to flood the world, bringing with them stories of missing GI's in their country. Since 1975, nearly 10,000 such stories have been received. Many authorities believe that hundreds of Americans are still held in the countries in Southeast Asia.
The U.S. Government operates on the "assumption" that one or more men are being held, but that it cannot "prove" that this is the case, allowing action to be taken. Meanwhile, low-level talks between the U.S. and Vietnam proceed, yielding a few sets of remains when it seems politically expedient to return them, but as yet, no living American has returned.
During the period he was maintained missing, Roderick B. Lester was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
Harry S. Mossman received the following awards:
Air Medal (7th award) Combat Action Ribbon Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon National Defense Service Ribbon Vietnam Service Medal (with 3 bronze stars) Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces Meritorious Unit Citation (Gallantry Cross Medal Color with Palm) Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
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Remains of two Navy heroes coming home 2004-01-15
by Mike Archbold <mailto:mike.archbold@kingcountyjournal.com> Journal Reporter
More than three decades after his Navy jet was downed over North Vietnam, Lt. Cmdr. Harry Mossman may finally be coming home today.
This morning, an aluminum casket-sized case, draped with an American flag, will be carried off a plane at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. Inside are remains found at the site where Mossman's A6-A Intruder jet bomber crashed on Aug. 20, 1972.
A joint service honor guard and senior officers from each service will pay their respects to the remains of returning heroes lost in Vietnam for so long, and now repatriated.
Tom Moore, 35, of Renton, was 4 years old when his father, Harry Mossman, the bombardier/navigator, and Lt. Cmdr. Roderick Lester, the pilot of the two-man A6-A bomber, disappeared in a flash of light on a dark, storm-tossed night while on a low-level bombing mission.
Moore said this week that he hopes the military will be able to positively identify the remains and that the families and friends involved would be able to feel closure.
He said his family, including his mother, Rocky Harvey of Bellevue, and his brother, Bill Moore, 33, of Yakima, have tried to come to terms over the years with the fact that her husband, their father, was dead.
``I think our family tried to make peace with the fact that he was gone,'' Tom Moore said. ``All the (official U.S. Navy) reports indicated he was killed.''
He praised the military for its continuing efforts to try and bring their father home. ``We are really appreciative of how hard they worked and for how many people have worked on this case,'' he said.
Moore said the family wouldn't be at the ceremony in Hawaii, but there would be representatives there. Greg Wood and Paul Bloch, both retired Navy captains who live on the Eastside, were to attend. Wood and Bloch were both in the same unit, Attack Squadron 52 Knightriders, with Mossman and Lester when they disappeared.
Last year, both Mossman and Lester were honored at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field when an A6-A donated to the museum was dedicated to the men. Tom and Bill helped unveil the plane that day.
Mossman, who was from New York state and Lester, who was from Morton, Wash., were deployed to Vietnam from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.
The whereabouts of the crashed plane weren't known for more than 20 years. In 1994, a possible crash site was discovered as part of joint efforts by the United States and the Vietnam government to find any prisoners of wars left behind, and to locate all remains of those missing in actions.
Located high on a mountainside near Hon Gai in Quang Ninh province, the site was remote and difficult to access. It took five years before the family was notified that the downed aircraft scattered over a football-field length debris field was Mossman's.
In October and November 2003 another detailed search and excavation found a variety of remains, including pieces of personal equipment and clothing.
The remains brought to Hawaii will be turned over to the Accounting Command which will begin the detailed process of DNA identification.
Tom Moore, who is the sports editor for the King County Journal, said he understands the identification process could take another year or so.
Bill Moore's 2-year-old son, Harrison, is named after their father.
Harry Mossman also lives on in a scrapbook Rocky Harvey put together for her sons. They also have a 50-page letter, dated Jan. 19, 1972, that was written to them by their father.
In it, he tried to sum up the fatherly advice he wanted to give his sons when they grew older. He wrote about life and why we are here on earth. He wrote about values and emotions that are common to everyone. Among the words that struck home, Tom Moore said, were:
``Many persons have learned things from the dead individual, whether by example of his deeds or the conscious attempts he made to teach his family and friends to accept life, or chance words that struck home. In some small way, living people share parts of his soul, conscious or otherwise.''
``The saddest part of the job I have undertaken is that the armed services by their nature, represent the last resort, when rational solutions to the country's problems have failed.''
http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/153672 Eastside: King County Journal 1705 132nd Ave. N.E. Bellevue, WA 98005-2251 Phone: 425-455-2222 Fax: 425-635-0602 South County: King County Journal 600 Washington Ave. South Kent, WA 98032 Phone: 253-872-6600 Fax: 253-854-1006 All materials Copyright c 2003 Horvitz Newspapers, Inc.
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http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/170068
Service set for pilot who vanished over North Vietnam 2004-08-05 Journal Staff
A memorial service for Navy Lt. Cmdr. Harry Seeber Mossman, whose A6-A Intruder jet bomber disappeared over North Vietnam more than three decades ago, will be held Aug. 30 at Tahoma National Cemetery in Maple Valley.
The service, with full military honors, will be at 11 a.m.
Mossman's family includes his wife, Rocky Karen Harvey of Bellevue, and sons, Tom Moore, formerly of Renton and now living in Capitola, Calif., and Bill Moore of Yakima. Tom Moore is the former sports editor of the King County Journal.
The whereabouts of the crashed plane weren't known for more than two decades.
Mossman's remains were positively identified this spring, following the 1999 discovery of debris from his aircraft on a remote mountainside near Hon Gai in Quang Ninh province.
Mossman, the bombardier/navigator, and Lt. Cmdr. Roderick Lester, the pilot, had crashed there on Aug. 20, 1972.
Born in Augusta, Maine, Mossman was a member of the VA-52 squadron from the Whidbey Naval Air Station.
His sons were only 2 and 4 at the time of his death. Six months before that, Mossman left a 50-page letter for them in which he wrote, in part:
``Many persons have learned things from the dead individual, whether by example of his deeds or the conscious attempts he made to teach his family and friends to accept life, or chance words that struck home. In some small way, living people share parts of his soul, conscious or otherwise.''