THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. I am heartened you were returned home after the passage of so many years. May you rest in eternal peace.

1LT Johnnie Cornelius, You are remembered. O-2A 68-6879.

Gig'em Army

Dear Captain Johnnie Cornelius,
Thank you for your service as a Tactical Aircraft Pilot (Various.) I am glad you were identified in 2007. Welcome Home. It is so important for us all to acknowledge the sacrifices of those like you who answered our nation's call. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

MAJ Robert F. Woods was a Covey Forward Air Controller assigned to the 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron at Da Nang. On June 26, 1968, MAJ Woods and CAPT Johnnie C. Cornelius were flying O-2A Skymaster (#68-6879) two miles north of the DMZ over North Vietnam close to the border of Laos when they began a dive to mark a target. The aircraft never pulled out of its dive and crashed in a remote mountainous area. They may have been hit by ground fire. The crew of another aircraft in the flight saw no parachutes and reported hearing no emergency beeper signals. Immediate search efforts were unsuccessful and their bodies were not recovered. Between 1988 and 1993, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), investigated the incident and surveyed the crash site. The team interviewed several Vietnamese citizens, two of whom turned over human remains and the pilots' identification tags. Between 1994 and 1997, joint teams re-surveyed the site two times to find a landing location to support a helicopter and recovery team. During their survey, one team found additional wreckage and life-support material. Between 2000 and 2004, joint teams excavated the site four times. They recovered additional human remains, personal effects and life support materials. In 2006, a joint team interviewed two former North Vietnamese soldiers who recalled the crash. The soldiers said that Woods and Cornelius were buried near the crash site. In 2007, another joint team excavated the burial site identified by the Vietnamese soldiers. The team recovered additional human remains. Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons in the identification of the remains. [Taken from pownetwork.org and fac-assoc.org]