THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. We should be forever thankful for the sacrifices of you and so many others to ensure the freedoms we so often take for granted.

Colonel Donald Ellis Fisher, Served with Detachment 1 (Nha Trang), 314th Tactical Airlift Wing, 13th Air Force.

Dear Colonel Donald Fisher,
Thank you for your service as a Navigator. I am glad you were identified in 2000. Welcome Home.
Tuesday is the 17th anniversary of 9/11, and we remember you all. It has been too long, and it's about time 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.

I was a friend of your beautiful daughter Donna in Jr. High. I knew your other daughter, son, wife and in-laws. Even though I was young I still knew the sadness your family felt not knowing where you were. When they started bringing home the POW's we all hoped you would be found. I have since lost track of your family but often think of how brave they were and what a close family they were to each other. I am glad to now know that you were found and are resting in peace at Arlington National Cemetery. Thank you for your service.

On December 29, 1967, a C-130E aircraft departed Nha Trang Airbase shortly after midnight on an operational mission over North Vietnam. The eleven man crew aboard the aircraft included MAJ Charles P. Claxton, CAPT Edwin N. Osborne Jr., and CAPT Gerald G. Van Buren (all listed as pilots), and crewmen SSGT Edward J. Darcy, SSGT Gean P. Clapper, SSGT Wayne A. Eckley, LTC Donald E. Fisher, TSGT Jack McCrary, CAPT Frank C. Parker III, CAPT Gordon J. Wenaas, and SGT James R. Williams. At 4:30 a.m., the pilot made radio contact with Nha Trang and said the mission was progressing as scheduled. No further contact was made. The aircraft's last known position was in extreme northwest North Vietnam, in mountainous Lai Chau Province. The eleven Americans aboard the aircraft were declared Missing in Action. When the war ended, and 591 Americans were released from Vietnamese prison camps, the crew of the C-130 was not among them. In October and November 1992, a joint U.S. - Socialist Republic of Vietnam team interviewed five witnesses who had knowledge of the crash site. Two of the witnesses had visited the area of the crash in 1967 or 1968 and provided information about the site. Some of the witnesses turned over identification cards or tags that contained the names of some of the crew members. The team visited the site and recovered some human remains. In February 1993, the government of Vietnam turned over additional remains and a photocopy of more identification media. In October and November a joint team led by Joint Task Force-Full Accounting excavated the suspected crash site where they recovered aircraft wreckage, personal effects and human remains. In 1994 and 1995, Vietnamese citizens and government officials turned over additional remains. Department of Defense analysts concluded from the distribution of the aircraft wreckage that the C-130 hit a mountainside and the crew was unaware of the impending crash. Nine parachutes were accounted for among the artifacts recovered, and there are no unresolved live sighting reports associated with this incident. Analysis of the remains and other evidence by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii established the identification of the eleven servicemen. (Note: a much more detailed account of this incident is available on pownetwork.org) [Taken from pownetwork.org]