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Y! MyWebVietnam War pilot's remains identified after 40 years
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
West Liberty — About 40 years after his death in a mid-air collision in South Vietnam, a West Liberty pilot has been identified and will be buried in his home town.
Col. David Zook Jr., will be buried with full military honors Saturday, Oct. 4 in West Liberty.
He was born in Bellefontaine on Jan. 22, 1930 and joined the U.S. Air Force in March, 1956.
Zook was declared Missing in Action after a plane crash on Oct. 4, 1967 over the Song Be Province in South Vietnam, according to the Department of Defense POW Missing Personnel Office (DPMO).
Zook was in a U-10B Super Courier aircraft flying a psychological warfare operation over the province when the plane crashed with a C-7A Caribou. The pilot of the C-7 reported that he watched the other aircraft crash and explode, and several attempts to locate Zook's remains failed.
Larry Greer, a spokesman for POW/MIA office, said Zook had a wife and two children at the time of the crash. They could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.
However, efforts to locate his remains did not stop after the crash. In 1992, a team that included members of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command continued to investigate the crash. Along with interviewing Vietnamese residents, the team viewed the site and found evidence that matched the crash, according to the DPMO.
A small bone fragment was found, and another team investigated the site a year later, recovering another bone fragment, as well as pieces of military clothing.
According to information from the DPMO, the site was excavated in March this year and more remains were discovered. Scientists used dental records, as well as circumstantial evidence and other forensic tools to identify the remains.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0355 or msanctis@coxohio.com.
