The remains of two American servicemen previously unaccounted-for from the war in Southeast Asia have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States. They are identified as Marine Capt. Robert A. Holt, of Reading, Mass.; and Marine Capt. John A. Lavoo, of Pueblo, Colo.
On Sept. 19, 1968, Holt and Lavoo were flying their F-4B Phantom on a combat mission over Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. After they launched their rockets at the target, their aircraft appeared to pitch very slightly without breaking its dive. It then pulled suddenly to the right 90 degrees, then back 45 degrees. It crashed amid a large explosion. No parachutes were observed and no beepers were heard by their wingman.
The wingman and another tactical control aircraft made low passes over the wreckage, but saw no evidence that the crew survived. An additional electronic search yielded no indication of survivors. The hostile ground threat precluded any search and rescue efforts.
In July 1992, a joint U. S./Vietnamese team, led by the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, visited the suspected area of the crash and interviewed several informants with firsthand knowledge of the site. One of the informants turned over remains they said were taken from the site. The team also examined some aircraft wreckage in the possession of the villagers.
Another joint team re-interviewed one of the informants in August 1993, while another team in January 1994 surveyed the site again and recommended it for excavation. Then in May 1994, excavation team members recovered numerous pilot-related items as well as human remains.
A fifth team continued the excavation in June and July 1994 and recovered additional remains and pilot-related artifacts. A sixth team completed the excavation in August and September 1994, recovering some artifacts, but no remains.
Anthropological analysis of the remains and other evidence by the U. S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii confirmed the identification of both of these servicemen. With the accounting of these two, there are now 2,061 Americans unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. Since the release of American POWs in 1973, 522 MIAs from Southeast Asia have been accounted-for and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
The U. S. government welcomes and appreciates the cooperation of the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which resulted in the accounting of these servicemen. We hope that such cooperation will bring increased results in the future. Achieving the fullest possible accounting for these Americans is of the highest national priority.