Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- April 28, 1998
Pentagon backs plea to open tomb
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A special Pentagon panel recommended yesterday that the remains of the Vietnam War veteran interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns be exhumed to scientifically determine whether they are those of 1st Lt. Michael J. Blassie of St. Louis.
The panel made the extraordinary proposal to disrupt one of the nation's most sacred burial sites after its four-month investigation confirmed circumstantial evidence linking the remains to the downed Air Force pilot.
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen will make a final decision once the panel confers with veterans and other interested parties and submits its recommendation.
Lt. Blassie's family has urged the Defense Department to help them determine the flier's fate by breaking open the tomb, whose aura of mystery and heroism attracts thousands of visitors annually to Arlington National Cemetery.
The working group's own internal report casts some doubt that scientists can perform the type of DNA test required to make a conclusive identification. The report said the remains of four ribs, part of a pelvis and a right humerus may not contain what is termed "mtDNA," or mitochondrial DNA, which is more difficult to analyze than nucleaic DNA found in body fluids.
"There are several factors -- including soil conditions, charring, age of the remains and exposure to weather -- that can destroy mtDNA," the report says. "There is, however, no effective way to determine this in advance from records or by visual inspection. Only testing will determine if the bones have retained their mtDNA."
Scientists say that mtDNA can last for hundreds of years in bone and teeth and that it is passed from one generation to the next. The Defense Science Board approved mtDNA testing in 1995, 11 years after the Vietnam unknown was interred.
The document also says anthropologists concluded in the late 1970s that the remains belonged to a man age 26 to 33 who stood between 5 feet 5 inches and 5 feet 11 inches tall. Lt. Blassie was 24, and medical records put his height at 5-foot-11 to 6 feet.
The report also says a blood sample taken from a leg hair found in a flight suit at the crash scene turned up O negative. Lt. Blassie's blood was A positive. But investigators note that that type of test has since been proven to be only 67 percent accurate.
Lt. Blassie's A-37B attack jet was shot down on May 11, 1972. It crashed and exploded near the town of An Loc, Vietnam. Six months later, a South Vietnamese patrol found the remains and personal effects near the A-37B's ejection seat.
The effects reportedly included Lt. Blassie's military identification card. But the card and other items never turned up at a U.S. Army mortuary in Saigon. "It cannot be determined precisely how or when these items were lost or stolen," the report says, and the description of the crash site was consistent with Lt. Blassie's downing.
The remains were initially categorized as "believed to be" those of Lt. Blassie. But in 1979, the chief of the Air Force Mortuary switched the designation to "unknown" based on the blood and anthropological results. Five years later, the Pentagon selected the remains, labeled X-26, as the Vietnam representative in the Tomb of the Unknowns.
The defense panel explained its decision this way:
"This case ... is unique and compelling. The Tomb is a national symbol in which the entire nation has heartfelt interest. Unfortunately, the current controversy has raised questions concerning the integrity of this national symbol. It requires us to reconcile two competing interests -- the sanctity of the Tomb and our national commitment to return unaccounted for servicemen to their families."
Herman Harrington, a top official with the American Legion, the nation's largest veterans group, expressed reservations. "If the family wants him positively identified and moved out of there, that's their choice," said Mr. Harrington, an Army infantryman in Europe during World War II. "But I still have a moral dilemma about the whole thing."
He added, "I would imagine that with sophisticated scientific tests we've got today they could probably identify all of those in the Tomb of the Unknowns. I don't know why we just can't let those poor soldiers rest and leave them alone. It's been a very revered place in Washington and there's always someone trying to rewrite history and say, 'Now we know who all these people are.'"
Arlington has had its share of publicity in recent months. A House panel found evidence of favoritism in granting some burial waivers. In the case of Democratic Party donor M. Larry Lawrence, his wife had his body exhumed from Arlington after the House probe determined he fabricated his World War II record.
The Vietnam remains could belong to eight other Air Force and Army fliers whose aircraft went down in the same area and whose bodies were never found.
Charles Cragin, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, said several unidentified remains exist at a forensic lab in Hawaii that could go in the tomb if tests prove that X-26 is Lt. Blassie.
The Vietnam unknown's remains lay in state at the U.S. Capitol, then were taken on an Army caisson to Arlington on Memorial Day, May 28, 1984. The remains were entombed in a separate crypt alongside unknowns from World War I, World War II and Korea.
President Reagan presided over the funeral and presented the Vietnam unknown with the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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