Plane Collided With C-7A During Psy-Ops Exercise

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced Tuesday the remains of a US serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

He is Col. David H. Zook, Jr., US Air Force, of West Liberty, OH. He will be buried October 4 in West Liberty.

On October 4, 1967, Zook was on a psychological warfare operation over Song Be Province, South Vietnam, when his Helio U-10B Super Courier (type shown below) collided in mid-air with a de Havilland C-7A Caribou. The C-7 pilot said he saw the other aircraft hit the ground and explode. Several search and rescue attempts failed to locate Zook's remains.

In 1992, a joint US/Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), investigated the incident in Song Be Province. The team interviewed Vietnamese citizens who witnessed the crash and saw remains amid the wreckage. The team surveyed the site and found evidence consistent with Zook's crash. While later examining the evidence recovered from the site, a small fragment of bone was found.

In 1993, another joint team excavated the crash site and recovered a bone fragment and non-biological material including small pieces of military clothing. In March 2008, a final excavation was conducted and more human remains were recovered.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and also used dental comparisons in the identification of Zook's remains.

FMI: www.dtic.mil/dpmo