From:
Duus, Kristen L SFC USARMY DPAA EC (US) <kristen.l.duus.mil@mail.mil>
Sent: 28 August, 2018 12:04
To: Undisclosed recipients:
Subject: California Naval Aviator Accounted For From The Vietnam War
Dear
Sir/Ma'am,
The
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that the
remains
of a U.S. serviceman, killed during the Vietnam War, have been
identified as those of Navy Cmdr.
James. B. Mills. Mills was accounted for
on August 20. On Sept. 21,
1966, Mills, a Naval Radar Intercept Officer
(RIO),
and the pilot, Capt. James R. Bauder, USN, were assigned to Fighter
Squadron
Twenty One, aboard the, USS Coral Sea, flying in an F-4B in a
flight
of two aircraft on a night armed reconnaissance mission over
then-North Vietnam. During the mission, the other aircraft lost contact
with
Mills' aircraft, and his plane did not return to the ship. No missiles
or
anti-aircraft artillery were observed in the target area and no
explosions were seen. An extensive search was conducted with negative
results. Based on this information, Mills was declared missing in
action.
Between
1993 and 2003, the loss of the Bauder/Mills aircraft was
investigated a total of 15 times, with no success. In 2006, during
Joint
Field
Activity 86, the investigation led to a possible underwater crash
site.
Five underwater investigations were required in order to determine
the
aircraft wreckage correlated to Bauder/Mills' loss. In 2011, the Air
Force
Life Science Equipment Laboratory, now an element of DPAA, was able to
positively identify the recovered wreckage as the Bauder/Mills aircraft.
Between
2010 and 2017, Underwater Recovery Teams (URT) from DPAA conducted
excavations of a submerged aircraft crash site in the waters immediately
off
Quynh
Phuong Village, Quynh Luu District, Nghe An Province, Vietnam. During
the
excavations, numerous pieces of aircraft wreckage, consistent with the
Bauder/Mills
aircraft, were found, as well as possible osseous material.
The
remains found were identified as Mills' pilot, Bauder.
In June,
2018, a DPAA Joint Recovery Team conducted another excavation,
finding
additional remains.
To
identify Mills' remains, DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner
System
used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis and anthropological analysis,
as well
as circumstantial and material evidence.
DPAA is
grateful to the government of Vietnam for their partnership in this
mission.
Today,
there are 1,594 American servicemen and civilians still unaccounted
for from
the Vietnam War. Mills' name is recorded on the National Vietnam
Veterans
Memorial in Washington, DC, and the Courts of the Missing at the
National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with others who
are
unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. A rosette will be placed next to
his name
to indicate he has been accounted for.
For information on funeral services,
contact the Navy Service Casualty
office at (800) 443-9298.
For
additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account
for
missing Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the
DPAA
website at
www.dpaa.mil
or call (703) 699-1420/1169.
Mills'
personnel profile can be viewed at
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000BTe8EAG
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