A Vietnam War pilot vanished over 50 years ago. His remains have just been found and identified

The remains of a Vietnam War pilot who went missing while flying over the jungles of northern Vietnam in 1972 have finally been found and identified more than 50 years after his disappearance, officials said.

U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Ronald W. Forrester, a 25-year-old from Odessa, Texas, was assigned to Marine All-Weather Attack Squadron 533, Marine Attack Group 12, 1st Marine Air Wing in the winter of 1972 while piloting an A-6A Intruder along with his co-pilot during a nighttime combat mission over the northern part of Vietnam when he suddenly stopped all contact and went missing, according to a statement from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency released on Tuesday.

“After entering the target area, Forrester’s aircraft ceased radio communications and never returned to base,” officials said. “Search and rescue teams could not locate any trace of the aircraft or the crew in the Le Thuy District, Quang Binh Province. In September 1978, the Marine Corps changed Capt. Forrester’s initial Missing In Action status to Killed in Action.”

However, after decades of investigation into the incident which yielded no results, investigators discovered remains and material evidence last year which they believed to be associated with both missing aviators.

“This recovered evidence has been associated with Reference Number (REFNO) 1973 incident and corresponding crash site (VN-02653),” officials said on Tuesday about the discovery. “To date REFNO 1973 is the only A-6 loss within 30 kilometers of the crash site, which the DPAA Indo-Pacific Directorate believes is a direct correlation to the missing Marines.”

In order to identify Forrester’s remains, scientists from the DPAA used “circumstantial evidence” recovered from the crash site as well as mitochondrial DNA evidence they were able to recover as well, officials said.

“Forrester’s name is recorded on the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with others who are unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War,” the DPAA said. “A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.”

Forrester will finally be buried on Oct. 7 in Arlington National Cemetery, the DPAA confirmed.

“DPAA is grateful to the government of Vietnam for their partnership in this mission,” officials said.