Crew Of Two Lost When OV-1A Mohawk Went Down During Recon Mission

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) says that the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

OV-1 Mohawk File Photo

Army Lt. Col. Glenn McElroy, 35, of Sidney, IL, and Capt. John M. Nash, 28, of Tipton, IN, were buried as a group, in a single casket representing the crew, on November 30, in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

On March 15, 1966, the men were flying an OV-1A Mohawk aircraft that failed to return from a reconnaissance mission over southern Laos in Savannakhet Province. An American forward air controller, operating in the area, reported witnessing the OV-1A aircraft crash after encountering heavy enemy anti-aircraft artillery. He
saw one parachute deploy shortly before the crash but he believed the crewman descended into the ensuring fireball. Immediate search-and-rescue teams flew over the crash site but were unable to locate any survivors.

Twice in 1988, joint U.S. /Lao People’s Democratic Republic (L.P.R.D.) teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), surveyed the crash site and found OV-1 aircraft wreckage and crew-related equipment—including an identification tag bearing Nash’s name. Records indicate there was only one OV-1 loss within 18 miles of Savannakhet Province. Between 2005 and 2009, joint U.S./L.P.D.R. teams, interviewed witnesses, investigated, surveyed and excavated the crash site several times. They recovered human remains, more aircraft wreckage and crew-related equipment.

Scientists from the JPAC used forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence to identify the crew.

FMI: www.dtic.mil/dpmo