PURCELL, HOWARD PHILIP
REMAINS RETURNED 10/30/96
Name: Howard Philip Purcell
Rank/Branch: O3/United States Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 13 April 1933
Home City of Record: Landsdowne PA
Date of Loss: 02 September 1963
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates:
Status (in 1973): Killed in Action/Body not recovered
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: B26E
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident: Neil McKinney, Raphael Cruz
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. 2020
REMARKS: Last radio contact VIC ZB061805
MEMORANDUM FOR CORRESPONDENTS October 30,1996
The remains of American servicemen previously unaccounted-for from
Southeast Asia are being returned to their families for burial in the
United States.
The remains have been identified as Capt. Howard P. Purcell, USAF, of
Landsdowne, Pa.; 1 st Lt. Neil B. McKinney, USAF, of Muncie, Ind.; Staff
Sgt. Raphael Cruz, USAF, of Stockton, Calif....
On Sept. 2, 1963, Purcell, McKinney and Cruz were flying aboard a B-26B
aircraft on an air cover mission over Kontum Province, Vietnam. They were
observed by their relief aircraft, but never returned to Da Nang Air Base.
An extensive search and rescue effort failed to locate the missing aircraft.
In 1992, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) repatriated to the United
States human remains and identification media for all three crew members.
The remains of these three servicemen were identified individually, and are
also part of a group remains identification. Mitochondrial DNA testing was
used to confirm the three identifications.
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The Columbus Dispatch
Sunday, January 4, 1998
LOVED ONES STILL SEEK ANSWERS FAMILIES OF MIAS QUESTION
GOVERNMENT'S RESOLVE
ON ISSUE
Ann Fisher Dispatch Staff Reporter
A new year of hope and labor to learn the whereabouts of her father awaits
Mitch McGouldrick Guess.
Nearly 30 years ago, Air Force Col. Francis McGouldrick Jr. was lost in a
midair collision over Laos during the Vietnam War. A few years later, Guess,
then 12, bought her first MIA bracelet and began in earnest a search that has
spanned the balance of her life.....
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02/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000sPM1kEAG
On October 11, 1996, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA,
now DPAA) identified the remains of Captain Howard Philip
Purcell, missing from the Vietnam War.
Captain Purcell joined the U.S. Air Force from Pennsylvania and
was a member of the 602nd Fighter Squadron. On September 2,
1963, he piloted a B-26 Marauder (tail number 44-34682) on an
air cover mission over Vietnam. The Marauder went down during
its return flight from the mission, killing Capt Purcell, and
search efforts failed to locate it or its crew. In March 1992,
the Vietnamese government returned to U.S. custody a set of
remains they associated with Capt Purcell. In 1996, U.S.
analysts confirmed the identification of the remains as those of
Capt Purcell.
Captain Purcell is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at
the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.