THE WALL OF FACES

I don’t know where to begin to express my gratitude to someone so courageous, but I will try.

I want to thank you for taking up the call to serve your country so honorably and I want to thank you for the ultimate sacrifice that any man can make – your precious life. Please know that these mere words come from my heart and I mean ever one of them.

No matter how others may feel you did not die in vain, nor was the war senseless. You and your brothers-in-arms whose names are engraved on The Wall have and will be an influence for good in this country. You and the others have influenced the youth of our country – this is shown by the remembrances these young people have left for all of you on this site. You all have touch a cord in them and they will remember your sacrifice all of their lives; so, your deaths are not in vain.

I am proud of you and the others and can hardly wait for the day when I will be able to meet you and give my thanks to you all.

You courageous men have touched me to my very soul with your selfless actions and I will spend the rest of my day honoring you all in whatever way that I can. Thank you for the bottom of my heart!!

On this your Angel Day I leave this quote for you it’s from the movie We Were Soldiers:

To fallen soldiers, let us sing,
Where no rockets fly or bullets wing
Our broken brothers let us bring
To the Mansions of the Lord

No more bleeding, no more fight
No prayers pleading through the night,
Just divine embrace, eternal light
In the Mansions of the Lord

Where no mothers cry and no children weep
We will stand and guard though the angels sleep
Through the ages safely keep
The Mansions of the Lord

Remembering you today and praying that there is hope that you did not perish, but
that one day you will find your way home.

Funeral Sat. for Airman Who'd Been Missing 41 Years
by John Shirek
11 Alive News
Atlanta, Ga.
19 October 2008

An airman killed in combat in 1967 and missing for almost all of the next 41 years will finally be laid to rest here, with full military honors, on Saturday, October 25, next to his mother who died never ceasing her prayers for him, never knowing his fate.

Air Force Captain Lorenza "Ren" Conner was piloting an F-4D Phantom II fighter jet during a combat mission over North Vietnam when he and his co-pilot were shot down on October 27, 1967.

The co-pilot, Captain Jon Black of Johnson City, TN, was able to eject. Capt. Black was taken prisoner by Viet Cong soldiers.

Capt. Conner, who was 24 when he was killed, had been officially listed as missing and presumed dead for most of the years since his crash. On October 2, 2008, the Defense Department announced that human remains found last year during the excavation of a crash site deep in a Vietnamese jungle were those of Capt. Conner.

"We still had hope that maybe one day, you know, he would find his way back home," one of Conner's cousins, Terri Durrah, told 11Alive news in Cartersville on Oct. 2. "I've often said that we've had our time to mourn. It's time to celebrate his coming home. We're happy, now. We now know. So we don't have to wonder anymore. And now we can put him to rest next to his mother."

In an e-mail to 11Alive News this weekend, Durrah said services for Capt. Conner will include a memorial at 6:00 p.m. Friday, October 24, at the John H. Morgan Gymnasium at 133 Aubrey Street in Cartersville.

Capt. Conner's funeral will take place on Saturday, October 25, at 1:00 p.m., at the Trinity United Methodist Church, 814 West Avenue, Cartersville, GA 30120.

Conner, an only child, will be buried at Oak Hill Cemetery next to his mother, Pauline Conner.

Just prior to the funeral, from 11:45 a.m. to Noon, Capt. Conner's fraternity brothers from the Omega Psi Phi chapter at Tuskegee University will perform a memorial ceremony. It will take place at Owen Funeral Home, 12 Collins Drive SE, Cartersville, GA 30178.

On Silver Wings
They Flew The Skies
These Brave Young Men
Who Fought And Died
When Duty Called
They Went So Brave
Now Families Mourn
Beside Their Grave
Who Can Forget
What Courage They Had
Some Have,Some Did
And That's So Sad

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense
(Public Affairs)

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 855-08

08 October 2008

USAF PILOT MISSING IN ACTION FROM THE VIETNAM WAR IS IDENTIFIED AND RETURNED TO FAMILY

The Department of Defense POW / Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, Missing In Action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

He is Captain LORENZA CONNER, United States Air Force, of Cartersville, Georgia.

He will be buried on Thursday 25 October in Cartersville.

On 27 October 1967, Conner and his copilot, Captain JON DAVID BLACK flew an F-4D Phantom II fighter jet in a flight of four on a combat air patrol mission over North Vietnam where the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Tuyen Quang Province, North Vietnam.

The copilot ejected safely, was captured and later released by Vietnamese forces in February 1968, but Conner could not eject from the aircraft before it crashed.

In 1992, Vietnamese citizens told U.S. officials that they had information concerning the remains of missing U.S. servicemen and they turned over Conner's identification tag.

Between 1992 and 2003, several joint U.S. / Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, led by the Joint POW / MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), investigated this incident, interviewed witnesses and surveyed the crash site.

At the crash site, teams found aircrew-related equipment and aircraft wreckage consistent with an F-4 Phantom II.

In 2007, another joint team excavated the site and recovered human remains.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC also used dental comparisons in the identification of Conner's remains.