WOODS, LAWRENCE
Remains ID 27 Sept 2013
Name: Lawrence Woods
Rank/Branch: E6/US Army
Unit: 5th Special Forces
Date of Birth: 18 March 1925
Home City of Record: Clarksville TN
Date of Loss: 24 October 1964
Country of Loss: Cambodia
Loss Coordinates: 121914N 1071952E (YU535630)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: C123B
Refno: 0042
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 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 2020.
REMARKS: AC SH/DWN - 7 REMS RECV N/SUBJ - J
SYNOPSIS: On October 24, 1964, Special Forces SSgt. Lawrence Woods was a
passenger on a Fairchild C123 "Provider" which departed Na Trang on an
aerial resupply mission near the border of South Vietnam and Cambodia.
The aircraft was hit by enemy fire and crashed. The aircraft itself was
completely destroyed by fire except for the tail section. No parachutes were
seen to leave the aircraft as it crashed. Subsequent searches of the crash
site resulted in the recovery or accounting of seven individuals onboard the
aircraft, but Woods was not found.
Lawrence Woods is listed among the missing because his remains were never
found. Others who are missing do not have such clear-cut cases. Some were
known captives; some were photographed as they were led by their guards.
Some were in radio contact with search teams, while others simply
disappeared.
Since the war ended, over 250,000 interviews have been conducted with those
who claim to know about Americans still alive in Southeast Asia, and several
million documents have been studied. U.S. Government experts cannot seem to
agree whether Americans are there alive or not. Detractors say it would be
far too politically difficult to bring the men they believe to be alive
home, and the U.S. is content to negotiate for remains.
Well over 1000 first-hand, eye-witness reports of American prisoners still
alive in Southeast Asia have been received by 1990. Most of them are still
classified. If, as the U.S. seems to believe, the men are all dead, why the
secrecy after so many years? If the men are alive, why are they not home?
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SSG Lawrence Woods, Headquarters, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces,
US Army, was lost 24 October 1964 near the Cambodian border. He was accounted
for on 27 September 2013. He will be buried with full military honors in early 2014.
* Army Staff Sgt. Lawrence Woods, 39, of Clarksville, Tenn., will be buried
as part of a
group on March 21 2014 at Arlington National Cemetery in a ceremony
honoring the
servicemen who were lost in an aircraft crash on Oct. 24, 1964.
Woods and seven other
servicemen were aboard a C-123 Provider aircraft that was
shot down after resupplying
the U.S. Special Forces camp at Bu Prang, Vietnam.
Seven remains were recovered,
but they could not locate Woods.
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Airman Missing From Vietnam War Accounted For
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office
announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman,
missing from the Vietnam War, were recently accounted for
and will be buried in a group burial ceremony.
Army Staff Sgt. Lawrence Woods of Clarksville, Tenn., will be buried as part of group on March 21, at Arlington National Cemetery, in a ceremony honoring the servicemen who were lost in an aircraft crash on Oct. 24, 1964. Woods and seven other service members were aboard a C-123 Provider aircraft that crashed when it was struck by enemy fire while resupplying the U.S. Special Forces camp at Bu Prang, Vietnam. Also on board the aircraft were Air Force service members Capt. Valmore W. Bourque, 1st Lt. Edward J. Krukowiski, 1st Lt. Robert G. Armstrong, Staff Sgt. Ernest J. Halvorson, Staff Sgt. Theodore B. Phillips, Airman 1st Class Eugene Richardson and Army Pfc. Charles P. Sparks. Shortly after the crash, U.S. forces arrived at the site and recovered remains of seven of the crew members, but they could not locate Woods. The remains for the seven crew members were individually identified and the men were laid to rest at that time. In early 1997, a joint U.S./Kingdom of Cambodia team investigated the crash site and found it to be on the Vietnam side of the border. Subsequently, a joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam team surveyed the site in 1999, and confirmed that the wreckage correlated to a U.S. C-123 Provider aircraft.
In 2009-2010, U.S. and Vietnamese teams excavated the site
and recovered human remains and additional evidence,
including a metal identification tag from the aircraft's
commander. Today there are 1,642 American service members that are still unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, call 703-699-1169 or visit the DPMO Web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo. |
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US soldier missing since 1964 buried with full military honors Posted: Mar 23, 2014 7:52 PM CDT
Nearly 50 years
after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War in October 1964,
the remains of a Tennessee soldier have been laid to rest at Arlington
National Cemetery.
The ceremony Friday honored crew members of a C-123 Provider aircraft that crashed after it was struck by enemy fire while resupplying the U.S. Special Forces camp at Bu Prang, Vietnam. The service members include Army Staff Sgt. Lawrence Woods of Clarksville. His remains were recently identified after having been recovered several years ago by U.S. and Vietnamese teams. The teams also recovered additional remains of six other crew members who were laid to rest shortly after the crash. Those remains were buried with Woods in a single casket....
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02/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000uar0CEAQ
On September 27, 2013, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command
(JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Staff Sergeant
Lawrence Woods, missing from the Vietnam War.
Staff Sergeant Woods entered the U.S. Army from Tennessee
and served in the 5th Special Forces Group. On October 24,
1964, he was a passenger aboard a C-123 Provider (tail
number 55-4549) that departed Nha Trang, South Vietnam, on
an aerial resupply mission to Camp Bu Prang. During the
mission, the aircraft was shot down by enemy fire and
crashed in Dak Nong Province along the Vietnam-Cambodia
border. All of the passengers and crew on the aircraft were
killed in the crash. Following the incident, investigators
located the crash site and recovered the remains of the crew
members and passengers except for SSG Woods', whose remains
could not be located at that time. Beginning in 1997,
investigative teams visited the crash site periodically in
an attempt to locate SSG Woods' remains. In 2009, Joint
U.S./Vietnamese excavated the crash site and recovered human
remains that were eventually identified as those of SSG
Woods.
Staff Sergeant Woods 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.