Capt. G. Barry Lockhart

 

Two of Alexandria’s Vietnam veterans initially reported as Missing in Action will be remembered during a ceremony Sept. 20 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in a first-of-its-kind Rosette Addition Ceremony on National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

The cemetery, also known as the Punchbowl, will be the site of a ceremony to place rosettes next to the names on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial to symbolize that their remains have been repatriated to U.S. soil and positively identified.

The marble walls of the monument list the names of all service members who went missing in the Pacific theater during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The American Battle Monuments Commission, which oversees the Courts of the Missing, attaches a bronze rosette beside the names of the missing whose remains have since been recovered and identified.

The two Vietnam War walls were erected in 1980 and hold 2,504 names. But while the remains of more than 900 of those service members have been identified and accounted for since it was built, only one rosette has been placed. The upcoming ceremony will place rosettes beside the names of 953 former MIAs, including Spengler and Lockart.

Spengler was killed April 5, 1972, when he was shot down as he piloted an AH-1G Cobra in Vinh Long Province. His remains could not be recovered immediately following the incident. In 1989 his remains were recovered and positively identified on Aug. 18, 1989.

On Dec. 21, 1972, Lockhart was the copilot of a B-52G Stratofortress on a combat mission over Hanoi. The Stratofortress was downed by a surface-to-air missile and Lockhart was killed in the incident. Heavy enemy presence in the area prevented search efforts for the aircraft's crew.

In December of 1988, the Vietnamese government returned a set of remains to U.S. custody that they had associated with the crew of Lockhart's B-52G. Forensic analysis identified Lockhart among the remains recovered.

Both Spengler and Lockhart are memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Their names are also inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC and the Captain Rocky Versace Plaza and Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Del Ray.

Colleen Shine of Arlington is one of two daughters of Vietnam War pilots killed in action who have spearheaded the ceremony. Shine was 8 years old when her father, Air Force Lt. Col. Anthony Shine, went missing in 1972 while flying a reconnaissance mission over the Laos border. His remains were identified in 1996.

“The rosette ceremony that we will do is proof that answers are possible,” said Shine, who has long been involved with the National League of POW/MIA Families. “The POW/MIA flag that flies is a symbol that America stands behind those who serve.”

The ceremony will take place Friday, Sept. 20 at 10 a.m. HST (4 p.m. EST) and can be viewed online at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency website beginning at 3:45 p.m. EST. www.dpaa.mil/Livestreams