THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The remembrance from Mark Davidson is especially poignant. As long as you are remembered you will remain in our hearts forever....

Back in the early or mid 1970s my mom bought me a POW bracelet to wear in order to remember those who had not returned from Vietnam. I was a young teen at the time, but always kept the bracelet. As I was going through old photos and momentos, I found my bracelet! I googled his name and found this update!! While I am saddened that Captain Barnes did not survive, I am glad his remains were returned. May he Rest In Peace. Thank you for your service. Respectfully, Joyce

CPT Barnes, You are remembered and honored. Co-Pilot of UC-21A 66-18007 on that ill-fated flight.

DEAR CAPTAIN BARNES,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE AS A FIXED WING AVIATION UNIT COMMANDER. I AM GLAD YOU WERE FOUND AND BROUGHT. WELCOME HOME. WATCH OVER THE U.S.A., IT STILL NEEDS YOU. THANKSGIVING DAY IS APPROACHING, AND WE ARE THANKFUL FOR YOU. GOD BLESS YOU. MAY THE SAINTS AND ANGELS BE AT YOUR SIDE. REST IN PEACE....

On April 30, 2012 the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. Army CAPT Charles R. Barnes of Philadelphia, PA, will be buried May 2, in Arlington National Cemetery. On March 16, 1969, Barnes and four other service members departed Qui Nhon Airfields bound for Da Nang and Phu Bai, in a U-21A Ute aircraft. As they approached Da Nang, they encountered low clouds and poor visibility. Communications with the aircraft were lost, and they did not land as scheduled. Immediate search efforts were limited due to hazardous weather conditions, and all five men were list as missing in action. From 1986-1989, unidentified human remains were turned over to the United States from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) in several different instances. None of the remains were identified given the limits of the technology of the time. In 1993, a joint U.S.-S.R.V. team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted investigations in Quang Nam-Da Nang, and Thua Thien-Hue Provinces. They interviewed a local Vietnamese citizen who supplied remains and an identification tag bearing Barnes' name, which he claimed to have recovered from an aircraft crash site. In 1999, another joint U.S.-S.R.V. team interviewed additional Vietnamese citizens about the crash and they were led to the crash site. In 2000, a joint U.S.-S.R.V. team excavated the site and recovered human remains and material evidence. Scientists from the JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used circumstantial evidence, and forensic identification tools such as mitochondrial DNA -- which matched that of Barnes' sister -- in the identification of the remains. [Narrative taken from pownetwork.org; image from wikipedia.org]