His jet lost a wing, crashed and burned. Check out member benefits and perks . Jean Blassie called the family together for a round-the-table discussion. Also pictured is sister Judy Cozad (left). They married in 1947 and had five children. USAF Honor Guard with Michael Blassies casket, Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery (SSgt Scott Seyer/USAF). Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. They petitioned the Department of Defense to open the site and conduct DNA testing, a technology that had been unavailable . An honor guard was fired a 21-gun salute and F-15 Eagle fighters flew overhead in the "missing man" formation as Blassie was buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis in a ceremony presided over by the eldest sibling, Pat Blassie, a captain in the Air Force Reserve. First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie (April 4, 1948 - May 11, 1972) was an officer in the United States Air Force. The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. Sampley had come across some second-hand accounts suggesting that Americas only set of unknown remains from Vietnam had been recovered from an aircraft that had been shot down in 1972. Sampley was a former Green Beret who had served in Vietnam. "My father, who served in Normandy during World War II, never got over losing Michael," says Patricia Blassie, who was 13 years old when her brother, the oldest of five siblings, died. No one doubted his commitment to the cause of POW/MIAs. Today: Cloudy with a chance of sprinkles or flurries. On May 14, 1998, the Department of the Defense disinterred the remains of the Vietnam veteran from the Tomb of the Unknowns. Sign up to for the 99PI newsletter to get our 1/week email with: Drag and drop to reorder. Secretary of Defense William Cohen was on hand for the somber burial. Your email address will not be published. I want to bring my son home.. In 1984, on Memorial Day, Blassie's remains - four ribs, pelvis and the upper part of an arm - were buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington. The ARVN turned the remains and the other crash site items over to Captain William C. Parnell, who was then serving as an operations officer at An Loc. There they would rest for eight years in a file labeled X-26 until their date with destiny arrived. The body will be cremated and her remains buried at Calvary Cemetery with her parents and grandparents. Search above to list available cemeteries. Five months after the shoot down an Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) patrol inspected the crash site and retrieved partial skeletal remains, an ID card, dog tags, a wallet containing a family picture, part of a flight suit, and the remnant of a pistol holster. Armed with the documents, he teamed up with veteran CBS correspondent, Eric Engberg. 0 cemeteries found in Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri, USA. In 1994, over two decades after Michael had been killed, his family received a phone call from a complete stranger named Ted Sampley. Are you sure that you want to report this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive? We have set your language to France, Romania, Italy everybody at the same time jumped on this idea. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. And he had only been able to find one missing plane that fully matched the planes description: Michael Blassies. The Army lab in Hawaii removed the BTB designation and, through a later discredited technique called morphological approximation, declared Michael Blassies remains as belonging to Unknown.. On July 10, Blassie's remains were transported to his family in St. Louis, and were later reinterred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. He died in 1991. Prior to the identification of his remains, Blassie was the unknown service member from the Vietnam War buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Michael Joseph Blassie was a United States Air Force officer who was killed in action during the Vietnam War in May 1972. The remains would eventually arrive at the Armys Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, but not before thewallet which was critical in linking the remains to Blassie went missing. Michael Blassie The Final Mission. Mike always knew what he wanted, I didnt. Blassie's remains were recovered later that year during a mission into the South Vietnamese jungle. His remains were buried in Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of The Unknowns as an unidentified soldier from the Vietnam War. The city of An Loc was totally leveled it looked like Hiroshima, says Chris Calhoon who was stationed there as an Army Ranger. The government does not have the right to keep such information from the family., When I looked into all the documents and from my personal research, it was obvious that improper decisions were being made, and all of sudden Michael is the Unknown representing the missing from the Vietnam War. The remains in the tomb are not even technically referred to as an unknown soldier. No one knows which service theyre from, so instead of soldier or sailor or marine, theyre simply referred to as the Unknown. In fact, anything that narrows the scope of who this person could be including where exactly they were found is purposely withheld from the public in order to make sure that they represent every possible service member. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. Try again later. (AP Photo/Brian K. Diggs), In thisJune, 30, 1998, photo,Joan Blassie, right, the mother of the Michael Blassie reacts to the news that the remains in the Tomb of Unknowns were confirmed by DNA testing as belonging to her son Lt. Michael Blassie, who was shot down over Vietnam. The file that Vince discovered made it clear the the person who had been put in the tomb in 1984 had been far from unknown. All rights reserved. A decade later, however, questions began to arise about the identity of this unknown soldier. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Michael Blassie (4245)? The Romans were fond of honoring them with an empty sarcophagus. Calhoon assumed that Michaels remains would be returning to his family,but that wasnt the case. Michael Joseph Townsend Sr. Obituary. Im curious how the remains werent identifiable as Michael Blassie if he was the only remaining unidentified serviceman from the war. Year should not be greater than current year. It was a South Vietnamese Army patrol that scoured the crash site and came back with six bone fragments, a Beacon radio, two compasses, an American flag, a parachute, remnants of a pistol holder, a one-man life raft, fragments of a flight suit, a wallet with family pictures, and an ID that read: 1st Lt. Blassie, Michael Joseph., Air Force equipment found with Michael Blassie: dog tag chain fragment, signal marker pouch, match holder, parachute survival guide, and ammunition pouch (Blassie family). Air Force jets fly over Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery during the burial of Lt. Michael Blassie, July 11. Then, in January 1972, he joined the 8th Special Operations Squadron of the 377th Air Base Wing at Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon. When they came back, they handed Michael Blassies remains toCalhoon. The aircraft went down in flames. Jean Blassie dies; she fought to get her son buried at home in St. Louis. Based on mitochondrial DNA testing, Department of Defense scientists were able to identify Blassie's remains. In 1998 the Tomb of the Unknown was . Institute staff later reported their surprise when they opened the casket to retrieve the DNA and saw the crash-site artifacts Major Johnie Webb had enclosed with the remains back in 1984. Her father died in a traffic accident when she was 9 or 10. He basically sat on a shelf from 1972 to 1984, Patricia Blassie said. based on information from your browser. Patricia was proud also when he headed off to Vietnam six years later. Subscribe with this special offer to keep reading, (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). The Blassie family watches as their family member Michael, is unloaded from a C-130 Hercules cargo plane, July 10. I dont care what happened, but the documents showed that patrol went into Michaels crash site to find him, and they did. We want the truth, we want to bring him home. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. For 14 years, the remains of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie lay beneath the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington. As is standard, all records pertaining to these remains were destroyed. Blood samples were collected from Patricias mother and older sister. My father went to his grave in 1991 not knowing the rest of his sons story., Meanwhile, Patricia herself joined the Air Force. During a tour of Vietnam, he served as a member of the 8th Special Operations Squadron. One British chaplain named David Railton saw some of the worst of the fighting on the front lines. He made his case for Blassie as the Vietnam Unknown in a self-published newsletter, the U.S. Flying bug found at Walmart turns out to be rare Jurassic-era insect That single set of remains was known only as X-26, but his actual name was Michael Blassie. On July 10, 1998, Michael Blassie's body was released to his family. Jean Blassie lost her son twice. Without a positive match, due to Army policy, the Blassie family could not even be told that any remains had been found. It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Michael Joseph Townsend Sr. of Snow Hill, Maryland, born in Salisbury, Maryland, who passed away on February 23, 2023, at the age of 72, leaving to mourn family and friends. Learn more about managing a memorial . After nearly two decades of uncertainty, the family of Blassie can finally reveal the empty crypt in which the men and women who served in Vietnam were buried, as well as the flag that was once flown over it. The Pentagon had kept them in the dark, probably with the good intention of not getting the familys hopes up until Michaels identity could be confirmed. . Hundreds, including Secretary of Defense William Cohen and House minority leader Richard Gephardt, attended the ceremony. We wanted to know the rest of the story. On July 11, 1998, U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie finally came home to St. Louis. "We were all so proud of him. They were a match and Michael Blassies remains were returned to his family. Serving as next-of-kid, President Ronald Reagan received the folded flag and made brief remarks. Remains identification bordered on guesswork. That just couldnt be. Given the advance of DNA technology, there may never be another US Unknown. Today, there is no body representing Vietnam at the tomb of the unknowns. One of Calhoons duties, in the midst of all this chaos, was to call in airstrikes. Michael flew as an Air Commando, probably running covert missions into Laos and Cambodia, in addition to his official duties as forward air controller and counterinsurgency operations pilot in South Vietnam. There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract.". Visit the digital memorial page of Veteran Michael Joseph Blassie where you can share stories, photos, biographies, obituaries, tributes and more. I dont know any of them. By 1972, when Michael was deployed, Americas military presence in Southeast Asia was shrinking rapidly. The soldiers anonymity would allow each person who came to the grave to project whatever was most important to them onto the mystery. Privacy Policy & Terms of Service. 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroism and extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight. Thanks for your help! It has been watched over day and night since 1937 by a lone guard, forever marching back and forth in front of the tomb. Maj. Allan J. Kellogg Jr. during a ceremony at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on May 17, 1984,[2] and were transported aboard the USSBrewton to Naval Air Station Alameda. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Please try again later. Michaels younger sister, Patricia Blassie, was seven years old when her big brother with the gentle smile left for the Air Force Academy in 1966. Web Policies, Careers, Accessibility, HHS Vulnerability Disclosure NLM, 8600 Rockville Pike Bethesda MD 20894 NIH, HHS, FOIA, NLM Support Center, Last reviewed: 03 December 2014Last updated: 05 June 2014First published: 16 February 2006, Air Force equipment found with Michael Blassie. His sister, Pat Blassie, was 10 years younger than her brother, but she remembered he started working as a kid by selling newspapers on the street corner. Helton, L.M. The President also acted as next of kin to the unidentified Blassie by accepting the interment flag at the end of the ceremony. After Blassie's family secured permission, the remains of Blassie were exhumed on May 14, 1998. ADVERTISEMENT BY ANCESTRY.COM. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. Today he comes home.". Michael Blassie had become a cold statistic of war. Major Johnie Webb was the officer in charge of the Armys Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. After the Civil War, the Union buried 2,111 soldiers in a mass grave in Arlington that they purposely built in the middle of Robert E. Lees rose garden. It sits at the top of a hill that overlooks the rest of Arlington Cemetery. On 11 May 1972 the city of An Loc SVN was under attack by North Vietnamese forces during the so-called Spring Offensive. You are nearing the transfer limit for memorials managed by Find a Grave. At 67, Mrs. Blassie went back to work as a sales clerk at Dillards. Just to eliminate doubt, Patricia traveled to the Air Force Casualty Office at Randolph AFB in San Antonio to ask if there might be any truth to Sampleys claims. First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie, 24, was shot down over South Vietnam in 1972 and presumed dead. Michaels missions took him all over Vietnam, but the most dangerous was arguably over a place called An Loc, a town about 50 miles north of Saigon. Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now The dedication alone attracted so many mourners, the line for viewing lasted ten days. DNA is also stored in tiny, energy-producing structures in the cells, called mitochondria. In the early 1980s, officials chose the set of remains coded "X-26" to be interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns. Please reset your password. Webb devised an ingenious solution: hide the crash-site artifacts where no one would ever find them, in the casket with the remains of X-26. A funeral Mass will be at 9:30 a.m. today at Rose Philippine Duchesne Church, 2560 Parker Road, Florissant. Over the next month, enemy forces cinched the noose, pounding the city with artillery and attempting to starve out the population. Failed to delete memorial. 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