American airman found 18 yrs after being shot down

[max_tranmere]

I saw this on the news today. The where-abouts of an American airman, who was shot down in the first Iraq War in 1991, has been discovered. His mangled-up plane was discovered soon after he was shot down, but there was no body. His family were told by the US State Department that he was missing-in-action, and for 18 years they had no idea if he was going to walk through their front door that day. Some villagers revealed this week that they had taken the dead body from the plane, 18 years ago, and buried him. Now his family know what happened. Imagine not knowing if your relative was dead or alive for 18 years - you would assume he's dead but you don't know for sure. How awful.

[supsim96]

Didn't they reckon a good number of RAF WW2 losses occurred over the North Sea? Not much likelihood of ever finding a body there. Horrible. The families did eventually have the small comfort that their loved ones hadn't died in vain I guess though.

[Jonone]

I don't know how well known this is .. it's possibly one of those details about war that no-one talks about because it's distasteful, but Cenotaphs (and most towns and cities have them I should think) are monuments to people whose remains are elsewhere ie the fallen who never made it home.

[max_tranmere]

Jonone, war memorials in general are like that. All the guys who died in World War One had to be buried where they fell and all the war memorials in towns and villages across Britian commenrate local people who are all buried abroad. Northern France is full of graveyards of British soldiers.

[Jonone]

So you give your life for your country and they can't be bothered to repatriate your remains ? Doesn't sound like a fair deal to me !