FLORIDA — After more than five decades of uncertainty, the remains of U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Willis R. Hall, who was killed in action during the Vietnam War, has finally been identified, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
In 1968, while stationed at Lima Site 85 in Laos, Hall was killed during an attack by Vietnamese commandos, with only eight of the 18 men being rescued.
In 1994, a U.S.-Lao recovery operation at Phou Pha Thi yielded no results, while a 2003 operation identified remains of Tech. Sgt. Patrick L. Shannon, but subsequent recovery efforts were halted due to logistical and safety issues, DPAA said.
From 1994 to 2009, U.S. teams, in collaboration with Vietnam and Laos, followed several leads related to the 1968 attack. A 2003 investigation recovered remains identified as one of the missing Airmen, and a 2005 tip revealed an identification card and suspected human remains of another servicemember.
In 2023, a DPAA investigation at the research site uncovered unexploded ordnance and materials, with some osseous remains identified as Sgt. David Price, a missing serviceman from Lima Site 85.
Scientists said they used anthropological and DNA analyses to identify Hall’s remains, and he is now memorialized at the National Cemetery of the Pacific and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, marked with a rosette indicating his accounting.
Hall will be buried in Altoona, Kansas, in September.
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