Blassie was declared missing in action and presumed dead. She and her four children met to try to figure out what to do. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract.". The name he read on the ID card was Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie. Western reporters called it a mini-Stalingrad, the ugliest kind of siege warfare. Many Vietnam veterans, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan visited Blassie as he lay in state in the U.S. Capitol. Over fifty countries would end up building similar memorials. . We've created a quiz to test your ability to recognize military aircraft. President Ronald Reagan bestowed the Medal of Honor upon the Vietnam unknown. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed Blassie, who was killed in Vietnam. The government does not have the right to keep such information from the family., When I looked into all the documents and from my personal research, it was obvious that improper decisions were being made, and all of sudden Michael is the Unknown representing the missing from the Vietnam War. Today, there is no body representing Vietnam at the tomb of the unknowns. Former GOP Candidate's Military Records Improperly Shared with Democratic Group, Why DARPA Banned the First-Ever First Person Shooter Video Game, Navy Renaming USS Chancellorsville to Honor Union Army Hero, Statesman Who Was Born into Slavery, 2 Commanders Among 6 Fired from Jobs at Minot Air Force Base, Morgan Freeman Turned Down an Acting Scholarship to Join the Air Force. Scientists at CIL-HI estimated the deceaseds age to be between 26-33 years and height between 65.2-71.5 inches. It was around this time that David Railton came across a temporary grave, a few miles behind the front, marked only by a cross bearing the name of a regiment and the words: An unknown British soldier.. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. He was convinced the government wasnt telling veterans everything it knew, and he was calling Patricia Blassie with an outlandish theory about Michaels death. Web Policies, Careers, Accessibility, HHS Vulnerability Disclosure NLM, 8600 Rockville Pike Bethesda MD 20894 NIH, HHS, FOIA, NLM Support Center, Last reviewed: 03 December 2014Last updated: 05 June 2014First published: 16 February 2006, Air Force equipment found with Michael Blassie. Yesterday I read an article about three WW1 soldiers buried in Copenhagen: https://www.thelocal.dk/20190305/the-little-known-story-of-the-first-world-war-soldiers-buried-in-copenhagen. The remains were eventually sent to a search and recovery center in Thailand before being forwarded to the Army's central identification lab in Hawaii. Michael Joseph Blassie (April 4, 1948 - May 11, 1972) was a United States Air Force officer who was killed in action during the Vietnam War in May 1972. The Easter Offensive was the largest and most conventional ground invasion of the Vietnam War. Your email address will not be published. Through these efforts, they reviewed evidence that suggested the Vietnam War Unknown was likely Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, a pilot who had been shot down in 1972. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. 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. In part, because the formula was so easy to follow all that was needed was the body of a single unknown soldier. Now that DNA samples are taken from everyone who joins the U.S. Armed Forces, there may never be another American "unknown soldier.". Patricia is on Michaels right (Blassie family). Patricia was proud also when he headed off to Vietnam six years later. . Michael was no longer Unknown. Captain Parnell wrapped the remains, and the other items found at the crash site, in plastic and held them overnight. On July 10, 1998, Michael Blassie's body was released to his family. It sits at the top of a hill that overlooks the rest of Arlington Cemetery. He believed, for example, that Senator John McCain had been brainwashed at the Hanoi Hilton and was sent back to the US to orchestrate official coverups of living POWs in Southeast Asia. Blassie's mother, three sisters and brother each carried small American flags during the service. I think I know where Michael is, he said, producing a paper trail that led to Arlington Cemetery. A decade later, however, questions began to arise about the identity of this unknown soldier. Mourners included military personnel, veterans and civilians. But Mrs. Blassie also had a hunch. He basically sat on a shelf from 1972 to 1984, Patricia Blassie said. Drag images here or select from your computer for 1LT Michael Joseph Blassie memorial. They were initially identified by Mortuary Affairs as Blassie. Michael Blassie was therefore ruled out as a possible match. He thought about how terrible it was that so many people were essentially being forgotten they deserved better than that. Members of Blassie's family could not be reached immediately for comment yesterday. She stood strong, did what was right and led the family.. Members of the Air Force honor guard carry the casket containing the remains of Lt. Michael Blassie into a hearse at Scott Air Force Base on Friday, July 10, 1998. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. He related his story of wrapping the remains, with the dog tags, in plastic. You have permission to edit this article. They may have received last rights, families informed, etc, but the rest of us know little about those individuals. 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. Out of the fog of war comes another version of the incident, one in which Michaels Dragonfly inverts upside down, and Michael ejects from the stricken aircraft. Baracus on "The A-Team," Mr. T was a member of the biggest team of them all -- the U.S "I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being Copyright 2023 Military.com. He was shot down and killed while piloting his A-37B Dragonfly aircraft in the vicinity of An Loc, in South Vietnam. 1894 shipwreck found in Lake Huron, confirming "powerful, tragic story" Sign up to get the most recent local obituaries delivered to your inbox. 1LT Michael Joseph Blassie Birth 4 Apr 1948 Saint Louis, St. Louis City, Missouri, USA Death 11 May 1972 (aged 24) Bnh Long, Bnh Phc, Vietnam Memorial Site* National Vietnam Veterans Memorial Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, USA Show Map * A structure erected in honor of someone whose remains lie elsewhere. I talked with many of them and they would say, But this is the one honor we received, and the Blassie family is disrupting that honor. I would reply, All the Vietnam Unknowns should be accounted for by the government. I would remind them of that, and Id tell them our family story. Patricia was proud also when he headed off to Vietnam six years later. Trailing the procession were Vietnam veterans, comparatively disheveled with beards, long hair, and jungle fatigues. A 1970 graduate of the Air Force Academy, Mike qualified on the A-37B Dragonfly (Super Tweet) Cessna attack aircraft. display: none; When family members received word that his remains might be buried in the Tomb of the Unknown, they petitioned the Department of Defense to open the site and conduct previously unavailable DNA testing. Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now On May 14, 1998, the Department of the Defense disinterred the remains of the Vietnam veteran from the Tomb of the Unknowns. He was unknown no more because of the determination of his mother and siblings. Eli Lilly to cut insulin prices by 70%, cap monthly costs at $35 They brought him home for burial in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St. Louis. #inline-recirc-item--id-91b39784-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { They detailed that Michael Blassies remains had been recovered in Vietnam and that the person who recovered them was Chris Calhoon. It was his 138th combat mission. Parnell soon turned the remains over to the Saigon mortuary, along with the ID card and other items. With the invention of the polymerase chain reaction in 1985, DNA analysis moved to the forefront of forensic technologies. I thought, What is that? I went into the backyard and waited, I mean, everything seemed so strange. DNA tests confirmed that the previously unknown soldier was, in fact, Michael Blassie. The ability to match mtDNA between related individuals, and the fact that it does not degrade as rapidly as nuclear DNA, makes it a valuable tool in the identification of human remains. In 1998 the Tomb of the Unknown was . Perhaps they should put up a new plaque at the memorial that talks about the fact that there may never again be an unknown soldier. St. Louis native Michael Blassie was the picture of an ideal young Air Force officer: tall, handsome, with a hospitable grin and approachable demeanor. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. Five months later, during a sweep of the area, a South Vietnamese Army patrol recovered a pelvis, an upper arm bone, and some ribs, as well as the remnants of a flight suit, a life raft, pieces of a parachute, and part of a USAF holster. The Army lab in Hawaii removed the BTB designation and, through a later discredited technique called morphological approximation, declared Michael Blassies remains as belonging to Unknown.. He must have been killed instantly since he did not transmit a distress call of any kind. It wasnt until World War I that it occurred to anyone to bury a single unknown soldier in a public setting. On May 28, 1984, a Third Army Old Guard horse-drawn caisson moved slowly along Constitution Avenue. "Mike lived a hero, and he came home a hero," said Emanuel Cassimatis, the Air Force Academy liaison officer who recruited Blassie in 1965. But the military didnt tell anyone, officials later explained, because they said they couldnt be certain that it was he. 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. Revealing the Unknown: The Mystery of Michael Blassie | Missouri Historical Society 1st Lt. Michael Blassie was killed in action during the Vietnam War, but his remains were unrecovered because the fighting was so intense in the area where his plane crashed. That just couldnt be. Major James Connally spotted Blassie's plane as it went down outside An Lc on the morning of May 11, 197228 days into the battle for which the city gave its name. Placing a Medal of Honor on X-26s flag-draped casket, the President concluded, Thank you, dear son, and may God cradle you in his loving arms.. Dubbed the super-tweet it was designed to fly low over its target. No one wanted to inter someone who might eventually be identified. Your playlist is stored within your cookies, clearing your browser data may remove your playlist. After 26 years, the family of Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie, buried the pilot Saturday, ending a painful mystery that began in 1972. On 11 May 1972 the city of An Loc SVN was under attack by North Vietnamese forces during the so-called Spring Offensive. "Today was a significant day for us," Blassie's brother, George Blassie said during Friday's service. #HonorVeterans #VetLegacies. 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. In 1998 the Tomb of the Unknown was opened and the remains of the Vietnam Unknownidentified as X-26were removed. (AP Photo/Brian K. Diggs), In thisJune, 30, 1998, photo,Joan Blassie, right, the mother of the Michael Blassie reacts to the news that the remains in the Tomb of Unknowns were confirmed by DNA testing as belonging to her son Lt. Michael Blassie, who was shot down over Vietnam. Air Force jets fly over Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery during the burial of Lt. Michael Blassie, July 11. Given the advance of DNA technology, there may never be another US Unknown. Pilots loved itbecause being that close the ground heightened the sense of flight and speed. In Michaels case, just this once, their mission was completed. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. 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. I assume now he was meaning in America but i immediately thought to other Countries national Monuments. Oops, something didn't work. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). The chain of custody began with Captain William C. Parnell, an operations officer at An Lc. The DNA technology that could conclusively identify the remains was just around the corner, but in 1984 they were ordered to prepare X-26 for burial. 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). On March 30, 1972, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) launched a massive surprise attack on the South. Learn more about managing a memorial . The US Air Force responded with aerial counterattacks. Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them students, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid. Oops, we were unable to send the email. It was on one of these bombing runs, shortly before Calhoon arrived in An Loc, that Michael Blassie flew his 132th and final mission. Still, as hesitant as he was,Gonzales thought maybe there could be more to the story. The gravesite of 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on Thursday, June 13, 2013. I find meaning in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier monument. He was constantly researching, protesting, and pressuring the Pentagon to resolve open cases. The next morning, he handed the package to a helicopter crew, which delivered it to the Saigon Mortuary. Learn more about merges. Blassie, who was killed in Vietnam. Immediate recovery attempts were launched, but Blassie had crashed in an area controlled by enemy forces so it was impossible to examine the crash site. On Memorial Day 1984, the remains of a soldier killed during the Vietnam War were laid to rest in the Tomb of the Unknown at Arlington National Cemetery. 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