Chopper Pilot's Family Finally Has Closure

After 36 years of wondering, Captain Herbert Crosby's family now knows for sure what happened to him. DNA testing of his remains, returned to the US in 1989, provided a positive identification.

A Department of Defense press release says Captain Crosby, then 22, and two crewmen were flying aboard a UH-1C Huey helicopter (file photo of type) back to their base in Chu Lai in 1970 when it went down in bad weather over Quang Nam Province in the country's southern region. A search and rescue effort by the Army was hampered by the rugged terrain and thick jungle.

A Vietnamese refugee and the Vietnamese government returned crash-related items, including human remains and Captain Crosby's dog tags, to US specialists in 1989. Further excavation of the crash site in 1994 produced more remains.

Earlier this month officials with the Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office ordered cross-matching of DNA from the remains found with that of Captain Crosby's two sisters. Scientists with the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory were able to make a positive identification.

Captain Crosby's sister Janie Crosby, now living in Pine Mountain, GA told the News-Sentinel, "It's a mixture of joy and sadness, but at least we finally have closure."

"It was real difficult when we lost (Herbert). He was only a few weeks from coming home," said Captain Crosby's cousin Ab Crosby, a Fort Wayne Fire Department Captain, adding "At first you hope they will find him. But the area was rugged, and after four or five months you begin to wonder. Then you just hope it was over quickly," adding Captain Crosby chose to go to Vietnam after a friend was killed there.

Ab Crosby said Captain Crosby's father, Herbert Sr., died after two decades of wondering about his son's fate.

The DNA tests this month also identified the remains of two of Captain Crosby's crewmen: Sergeant First Class Wayne C. Allen of Tewksbury, MA, and Sergeant First Class Francis G. Graziosi of Rochester, NY.

This brings to 841 the number of missing Americans returned and identified of the 2,646 originally listed as missing during the Vietnam War.

FMI: www.dtic.mil/dpmo