O'BRIEN, KEVIN
Name: Kevin O'Brien
Rank/Branch: O2/US Army
Unit: HHC, 2nd Battalion, 94th Artillery, 108th Artillery Group
Date of Birth: 30 August 1946 (Bronx, NY)
Home City of Record: Farmingville NY
Date of Loss: 09 January 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 162816N 1070200E (YD170220)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: O1G # 5059
Refno: 1357
Source: Compiled 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 in 2009.
Other Personnel In Incident: Hugh M. Byrd (missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: Kevin O'Brien was born in the Bronx on August 30, 1946. He also
lived for a time in Farmingville, New York. The blue-eyed, brown-haired
O'Brien, one of four siblings whose parents were deceased, attended
Tottenville High School and later Bronx and Suffolk County community
colleges.
O'Brien attended Officers Candidate School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and was a
First Lieutenant when he was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters
Company, 2nd Battalion, 94th Artillery in Vietnam.
On January 9, 1969, Capt. Hugh Byrd, pilot, and 1Lt. Kevin O'Brien,
observer, were on a visual reconnaissance mission over the Khe Sanh area of
South Vietnam in an O1G Bird Dog aircraft, tail #51-5059. Byrd's aircraft
flew from the 200th Aviation Company, 212th Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation
Brigade. O'Brian's job as observer from HHC, 2nd Battalion, 94th Artillery,
was to identify artillery targets. The plane diverted to assist a
reconnaissance team that was in enemy contact in the Khe Sanh area.
After aiding the team and being relieved by another aircraft, Byrd headed
his plane back to Phu Bai. The weather was bad and the pilot reported at
1940 hours that that he was lost and the weather was worsening. The aircraft
was not equipped to fly instrument in meteorlogical conditions. Dong Ha and
other radar controllers tried to get a fix on the Bird Dog, and were able to
maintain constant radio contact, but were able only to get an imprecise
location. Based on the direction the aircraft told them it was flying, the
radar station advised it to climb because of mountains in the area. No
further transmissions were heard.
Numerous searches were initiated following the disappearance of the
aircraft, but were broken off after a few days due to weather conditions.
When searches were resumed when the weather cleared, they failed to locate
any wreckage. Byrd and O'Brien were declared Missing In Action.
In August 1975, in the presumed crash area, a refugee reported seeing 2
downed U.S. aircraft which he described as one F5 jet and one L19. He was
told that 2 Americans on the L19 were killed and buried 1 kilometer from the
crash. The Army feels this report could possibly relate to Byrd and O'Brien.
(The O1 was formerly known as L19.)
Many authorities believe, based on thousands of refugee reports, that
hundreds of Americans are still alive, held captive in Southeast Asia. If
Byrd and O'Brien are among them is unknown. Dead or alive, they are in enemy
hands. It's time to bring these men home.
==============================================
the search

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

Memorial Mass

Major Kevin O'Brien

Friday, January 9, 2009 – 12 Noon

St. Joachim & St. Ann Church

Staten Island, New York. 
6581 Hylan Blvd., SI, NY. 

(On the grounds of Mount Loretto)

Light Refreshments in the Blue Room
CYO/MIV Community Center
After Mass

On January 9, 1969 in Quang Tri, South Vietnam a 23-year-old Mount Loretto graduate gave his life in defense of our country.

Kevin O'Brien was officially listed as missing in action after a plane he was in presumably crashed into a mountain when attempting to assist a reconnaissance team that was engaged in combat.

info:  Lee Covino <zlee18@peoplepc.com>
 718-816-2034

Major Kevin O’Brien

                Kevin O'Brien was born in the Bronx on August 30, 1946. He also lived for a time in Farmingville , New York . The blue-eyed, brown-haired O'Brien, one of four siblings whose parents were deceased, resided at the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin at Mount Loretto , Staten Island and graduated from Tottenville High School Class of 1964. He joined the US Army after attending Bronx and Suffolk County community colleges.

                O'Brien completed Officers Candidate School at Fort Sill , Oklahoma , and was a First Lieutenant when he was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 94th Artillery, 108th Artillery Group in Vietnam . On January 9, 1969, Capt. Hugh Byrd, pilot, and 1st Lt. Kevin O'Brien, observer, were on a visual reconnaissance mission over the Khe Sanh area of South Vietnam in an O1-G Bird Dog aircraft, tail #51-5059. Byrd's aircraft flew from the 200th Aviation Company, 212th Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade. O'Brian's job as observer from HHC, 2nd Battalion, 94th Artillery, was to identify artillery targets. The plane diverted to assist a reconnaissance team that was in enemy contact in the Khe Sanh area. After aiding the team and being relieved by another aircraft, Byrd headed his plane back to Phu Bai. The weather was bad and the pilot reported at 1940 hours that he was lost and the weather was worsening. The aircraft was not equipped to fly on instruments in meteorological conditions. Dong Ha and other radar controllers tried to get a fix on the Bird Dog, and were able to maintain constant radio contact, but were able only to get an imprecise location. Based on the direction the aircraft told them it was flying, the radar station advised it to climb because of mountains in the area. No further transmissions were heard.

                Numerous searches were initiated following the disappearance of the aircraft, but were broken off after a few days due to weather conditions. When the weather cleared and searches were resumed, they failed to locate any wreckage in the remote, triple-canopy jungle area. Byrd and O'Brien were declared Missing In Action (MIA). In August 1975, in the presumed crash location, a refugee reported seeing 2 downed U.S. aircraft which he described as one F-5 jet and one L-19. He was told by villagers that two Americans on the L-19 were killed and buried 1 kilometer from the crash (the O1-G was formerly known as L-19). A hand-drawn map was included in the refugee’s report.

                Beginning in 1990, then Staten Island Borough President Guy V. Molinari and Congresswoman Susan Molinari began an aggressive effort to urge the US government to search for O’Brien and Byrd, despite the low recovery priority assigned to the case (4 on a scale of 1-5). Having obtained a copy of the refugee report, the Molinari’s also approached officials of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at the UN in 1992 and 1993. Borough President James P. Molinaro and his staff continued to follow the case in the ensuing years, beginning in 2001.

                The US Department of Defense POW/MIA Office conducted a series of searches in the suspected crash area in 1993, 1999 and 2000.  The results of excavations revealed parts of the aircraft (a serial number was confirmed), and other debris. Also recovered was the lower-half of a ball-point pen indicating “Bravo Battery, 2nd Battalion…,” a unit of the 94th Artillery.  An artillery collar insignia was also recovered. Unfortunately, no DNA evidence has been found to date.

Military mystery: Viet jungle keeps its secret

40 years ago, Army officer raised at Mount Loretto and his pilot vanished after plane crash

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

By STEPHANIE SLEPIAN

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

STATEN ISLAND , N.Y. -- All contact with the Army Bird Dog was lost at two minutes after 8.

On a reconnaissance mission, the pilot and his spotter diverted to give backup to another team that was under enemy attack. At 7:40 p.m., the pilot reported the weather was bad. Radar controllers tried to get a fix on the plane's location. Another mayday call was heard at 8:02 p.m.

Then silence.

Gone, seemingly into thin air, were Capt. Hugh Byrd, the pilot, and 1st Lt. Kevin O'Brien, a 23-year-old Tottenville High School graduate who was raised at the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin at Mount Loretto , Pleasant Plains.

Friday will mark the 40th anniversary of the night the pair crashed into the dense jungle of Khe Sanh in South Vietnam .

Their remains were never found but the investigation into their deaths continues: The bottom half of a ballpoint pen unearthed at the crash site nine years ago is being analyzed by a Texas lab that assists the Department of Defense's Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office in its identification of recovered artifacts.

That pen may belong to O'Brien -- its battered red housing is marked with the name of his company, "Bravo Battery, 2nd Battalion."

"Maybe we're getting closer, closer to bringing Kevin home," said Lee Covino, who has been working on the missing soldier's case since long before he was appointed the veterans' affairs adviser in the borough president's office.

Even after 40 years, O'Brien's family still clings to that hope.

"Finding bits and pieces opens old wounds," said his sister Melissa Furnari, a former Tottenville resident now living in New Jersey . "Until Kevin has an eternal resting place, there's always been the hope in my heart that the door would open someday and there he would be."

RAISED AT THE MOUNT

O'Brien was born in the Bronx in 1946 and was raised at Mount Loretto with his three siblings. Nicknamed "Obie," the blue-eyed, brown-haired kid was active in the Mount's baseball, football and basketball programs. After graduating from Tottenville in 1964, he attended Bronx and Suffolk community colleges before joining the U.S. Army.

He was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant at Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill , Okla. -- and was posthumously upgraded to major.

"He was a wonderful brother, outstanding student and athlete," Mrs. Furnari said. "He had a sense of humor and never wallowed in pity. In fact, I never heard him complain about being brought up in an orphanage and not having the advantages that others had."

Covino became attached to O'Brien's story in 1984. While working as a counselor to Vietnam veterans, he learned that four boys who grew up at Mount Loretto were casualties of the war. Only one was without a final resting place.

Inquiries made over the years went nowhere.

Covino's arrival at Borough Hall in 1990 came at a fortuitous time: Guy V. Molinari was taking the reins and his daughter, Susan Molinari, was heading to Washington after winning her father's congressional seat. They began urging the government to search for O'Brien despite the low priority of his case, labeled 1357.

They also pushed for a search for Lt. Gerald Crosson Jr., the only other Staten Islander listed as missing in Vietnam .

A witness report from a Vietnamese native who claimed he discovered the wreckage of a downed aircraft in 1975 while visiting relatives was obtained. People in the area told him two Americans were buried a little less than a mile from the crash site.

The report came with a hand-drawn map. Then came a 1992 visit to Mount Loretto by an ambassador to Vietnam from the United Nations.

"We showed him the cemetery," said Covino, who kept his position when James Molinaro was elected borough president. "We told him that somebody was missing and we'd really like to bring him home."

The ambassador's promises to help ended with his time in office.

As the 40th anniversary of O'Brien's disappearance approached, Covino took another look at the file. He spoke with an MIA/POW advocate, who directed him to a Web site where declassified documents are made available simply by punching in the serviceman's case number.

Excavations of the site in 1993 and 1999 led to the discovery of plane wreckage, with artifacts like belt buckles, a green Army logbook cover, a connected seat belt. The aircraft parts, according to the documents, were sufficient enough to "establish a possible correlation to the aircraft involved in the Case 1357 incident."

A TELLING FIND

The evidence collected during an excavation from April 26 to May 4, 2000, found more telling evidence.

A team of investigators was led to the site by a second witness, a 60-year-old farmer and former Viet Cong platoon commander who said he found pieces of airplane wreckage while scavenging for metal in 1984.

He took them on a 90-minute drive northwest of Dong Ha City to Ta Rut village, according to the documents. A 40-minute walk along several ridges followed.

The site -- a northwest-facing slope with exposed rock outcrops, burnt ashy clay soil and triple-jungle canopy -- was excavated with the aid of 50 to 60 Vietnamese laborers who used rakes, shovels, pickaxes and buckets.

Retrieved along with the pen was a data plate from the plane.

It "exclusively correlates to the tail number of the Case 1357 aircraft," is the simple sentence at the end of a detailed narrative of the excavation.

O'Brien's crash site was definitively identified.

But it was closed on May 4, 2000, at noon, Vietnam time.

No further excavation was recommended.

Covino, however, won't let go.

"I still believe in my heart," he said. "If they really are buried within one kilometer of the site, I would go out there myself and dig. I keep hoping there will come a time when we'll have a headstone for Kevin at Mount Loretto ."

On the day her brother left for Vietnam , Mrs. Furnari drove him to the airport. He told her he had taken out a "little policy" for his siblings -- just in case.

"I told him not to be silly, but somehow I felt a pang of terror," she recalled. "When I arrived home from the airport, I threw myself on the bed and sobbed and told my husband, 'He's not coming home.'"

"Don't be ridiculous," her husband replied.

On Jan. 7, 1969, a birthday gift arrived from her brother.

Two days later came the knock at the door.

Stephanie Slepian is a news reporter for the Advance. She may be reached at slepian@siadvance.com.


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