If he couldnt do it, Webb would be ordered to sign off on the burial. Without a positive match, due to Army policy, the Blassie family could not even be told that any remains had been found. The first time, he was killed, his aircraft shot down while flying a mission during the Vietnam War in 1972. They talked to anyone they could find who was involved in the unknown selection process, and when they felt they were ready, they handed over their findings to Patricia Blassie. Veteran Dispatch. Michael Blassie and T-38 jet trainer (Blassie family). Another perspective on this issue is that all soldiers are unknown. At first, there were a lot of Unknowns to work with. The bones were taken to the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, where officials said they were "believed to be" those of Blassie. Actually, they had his remains and his military I.D. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Flying bug found at Walmart turns out to be rare Jurassic-era insect Calhoon assumed that Michaels remains would be returning to his family,but that wasnt the case. Two weeks after the offensive began, combined NVA and Viet Cong forces laid siege to the provincial capital of An Lc, located 100km north of Saigon. Flying at a low altitude to drop napalm, he would have been propelled into the ground. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Pete Mecca is a speaker, author, and Vietnam Air Force veteran who runs VeteransArticle.com and hosts VBCs A Veterans Story every second Thursday online. The gravesite of 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on Thursday, June 13, 2013. Blassie, 24, an Air Force Academy graduate and the oldest of the five children of a St. Louis meat cutter, was flying an A-37 when he was shot down over An Loc, about 60 miles north of Saigon in South Vietnam, on May 11, 1972. The guards coming on duty are inspected for perfection in uniform, and inspector found some problem with the new guards blouse. The discovery of personal effects at the crash site should have converted Michael Blassie from a Vietnam MIA to a KIA, closing his case. Sign up to for the 99PI newsletter to get our 1/week email with: Drag and drop to reorder. World War II, Korea, and Vietnam each would get their own Unknown. The Blassie family in St. Louis didnt know Michael had been misidentified because they were never told thered been remains and effects recovered in the first place. Try again later. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. On the other, if he destroyed Blassies personal effects, he might condemn Blassies remains to permanent oblivion. ). Michael was no longer Unknown. The Easter Offensive was the largest and most conventional ground invasion of the Vietnam War. Today, said President Reagan at the Tomb, we pause to embrace him and all who served so well in a war whose end offered no parades, no flags, and so little thanks. Test your Navy knowledge with this Navy history quiz by Military.com. Follow him on Facebook. On May 11, 1972, at age 24, his A-37B Dragonfly aircraft was shot down near An Loc, about 60 miles north of Saigon. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. In Michaels case, just this once, their mission was completed. Based on mitochondrial DNA testing . In addition, a single strand of hair found in the flight suit yielded an estimated blood type O negative. The chain of custody began with Captain William C. Parnell, an operations officer at An Lc. We have set your language to A funeral Mass will be at 9:30 a.m. today at Rose Philippine Duchesne Church, 2560 Parker Road, Florissant. DNA samples were taken from Michaels mother Jean and his sister Judy and tested against the remains. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. display: none; Articles in U.S. Love your show. It didnt matter if you wanted to honor all those who served or merely those who died, those who volunteered or those who were drafted, or even whether you were for the war or against it. Members of Blassie's family could not be reached immediately for comment yesterday. Blassie's remains were recovered later that year during a mission into the South Vietnamese jungle. No one knows how many remains from Vietnam and elsewhere were buried in the wrong graves because of these flawed identification procedures. Thats when a Vietnam veteran and former Green Beret named Ted Sampley called Patricias mother out of the blue. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Trending News There were fewer than 25,000 US servicemen left in Vietnam, as opposed to the over 500,000 who had been deployed by the late 1960s. Jean Blassie, mother of 1st Lt. Michael Blassie, 1998. When they came back, they handed Michael Blassies remains toCalhoon. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? I think that barring a complete abolition of war, this is a small consolation. For 14 years, the remains of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie lay beneath the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington. (eds): Last edited on 17 February 2023, at 18:50, "Soldier In Tomb Of Unknowns May Actually Be Known", "The Vietnam Unknown Soldier Can Be Identified", "Defense.gov News Article: Vietnam Unknown's Medal of Honor Transfer Denied", "The Evolution of the Tomb of the Unknowns", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Blassie&oldid=1139961298, This page was last edited on 17 February 2023, at 18:50. The remains were confirmed to be those of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie. He was convinced the government wasnt telling veterans everything it knew, and he was calling Patricia Blassie with an outlandish theory about Michaels death. Major James Connally, Blassies flight commander, described the tragic incident in a letter to Michaels parents: Mikes plane was hit and began streaming fuel. William S. Cohen, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 1998. The remains did not consist of much, just six bones. To use this feature, use a newer browser. During my only visit to the Tomb of the Unknowns, during the changing of the guard, I witnessed what may be a rare event. By 1972, when Michael was deployed, Americas military presence in Southeast Asia was shrinking rapidly. Those vacuum-sealed samples now number some 8 million, sitting ready for a self-reference analysis in case of battlefield death. Maj. Allan J. Kellogg Jr. during a ceremony at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on May 17, 1984,[2] and were transported aboard the USSBrewton to Naval Air Station Alameda. On July 11, 1998, Michael Blassie was buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. His body wouldnt be coming home. On 11 May 1972 the city of An Loc SVN was under attack by North Vietnamese forces during the so-called Spring Offensive. Family and friends are welcome to send flowers or leave their condolences on . On July 10, 1998, Michael Blassie's body was released to his family. Dubbed the "super-tweet . "He's still serving today because he now represents those that need to come home," she said. i . Patricia is on Michaels right (Blassie family). {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}. You grow apart sometimes during this kind of tragedy. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract.". One British chaplain named David Railton saw some of the worst of the fighting on the front lines. Om 1992, the Defense Department started collecting and holding blood samples from all inductees for possible future DNA comparisons. Chuck Norris, U.S. military veteran, and martial arts superstar began honing his skills in Korea while serving in the Air Before he went on to fame as B.A. 0 cemeteries found in Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri, USA. Drag images here or select from your computer for 1LT Michael Joseph Blassie memorial. Id also remind them that Michael was never an Unknown Soldier. Two weeks later, Michael Blassie was buried for good near the family's home . Michael Blassie had become a cold statistic of war. First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie (April 4, 1948 - May 11, 1972) was an officer in the United States Air Force. After the war, Railton advocated for a grave bearing the body of a single soldier to bring the impossibly large tragedy down to a human scale. English American serviceman who remained behind were stretched thin. Air Force jets fly over Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery during the burial of Lt. Michael Blassie, July 11. But they had also brought back other evidence: an uninflated raft, a parachute, part of Michaels flight suit, and critically: his wallet with pictures of him and his family. Photo by Erik M. Lunsford elunsford@post-dispatch.com Jean Blassie lost. Unidentified remains from that war had been analyzed over a decade and a half. Michael Blassie was therefore ruled out as a possible match. USAF Honor Guard with Michael Blassies casket, Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery (SSgt Scott Seyer/USAF). If they had, they might have hung up on him. Well, my mom cant get these kinds of phone calls, responded Patricia. There, Captain Richard S. Hess of Mortuary Affairs inventoried the package and added a skeletal chart showing the bones locations on the body (right humerus, right pelvis, and four rib bones). They denied it. In 1972, it was still under the control of the South Vietnamese military, along with a handful of American advisors, but it was surrounded by an invading North Vietnamese Army. Part 2: DNA. In January 1998, CBS Evening News broke the story: The military had hidden pilot Michael Blassies identity from his family and the public. Your donations are vital to keeping us independent and strong! A neighbor came over to get me, saying, Pat, you need to go inside. So I did and knew something was horribly wrong. The writer had been combing through military records, he said, and found that the Air Force had found the wreckage of Michaels plane five months after he was shot down, 60 miles north of Saigon. On March 21, 1984, Webb reluctantly signed. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. They married in 1947 and had five children. At the request of Blassie's family, the Department of Defense exhumed the remains from the Vietnam Unknown's crypt on May 14, 1998. That was enough for Captain Patricia Blassie. The ARVN turned the remains and the other crash site items over to Captain William C. Parnell, who was then serving as an operations officer at An Loc. On July 10, Blassie's remains were transported to his family in St. Louis, and were later reinterred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. The president meant to assure families of soldiers with MIA status that their loved ones would not be forgotten, but his words were prescient of the Vietnam unknown's fate. [3][4] A CBS News report in January 1998 subsequently made the same claim. This account has been disabled. In 1998 the Tomb of the Unknown was . Blassie, who was killed in Vietnam. Michael Blassie received an appointment to the Air Force and fell in love with flying immediately. 1894 shipwreck found in Lake Huron, confirming "powerful, tragic story" He was constantly researching, protesting, and pressuring the Pentagon to resolve open cases. display: block; Blassie's mother, three sisters and brother each carried small American flags during the service. Her father died in a traffic accident when she was 9 or 10. Three years later, in 1997, Vince Gonzales, a young correspondent with CBS News, contacted the Blassies. He knew morphological approximation was a flawed identification technique, and he suspected that someday, X-26 might be identified, especially given the personal effects and documents associated with the bone fragments. After the Civil War, the Union buried 2,111 soldiers in a mass grave in Arlington that they purposely built in the middle of Robert E. Lees rose garden. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. Thanks Dennis! The remains were reclassified as unknown when their projected age and height were judged not to match Blassie's.[1]. The six fragments in file X-26 were the exception. He basically sat on a shelf from 1972 to 1984, Patricia Blassie said. In 1994, over two decades after Michael had been killed, his family received a phone call from a complete stranger named Ted Sampley. Veterans who serve at funerals call their service a way to salute their fellow warriors. Michael was 24 years old and 72 inches tall when he died. 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