4 years ago
By Lindy Thackston First Coast News
WAYCROSS, GA -- The remains of four U.S. Servicemen missing in action since the Vietnam War have been identified.
Major Jack L. Barker of Waycross, Georgia was from the Army's 101st Airborne Division.
Barker was piloting a UH-1H Huey Helicopter in the Vietnam War with three other men on board while on a troop extraction mission in the Savannakhet Province of Laos.
The helicopter was hit by heavy enemy ground fire and exploded.
Barker's family, in Waycross, learned he was "missing in action" on March 20, 1971.
The Army declared him "killed in action" a few months later, but his remains were never found.
More than 30 years later, an excavation team found some small pieces of human remains at the site of the crash, and some wreckage and insignia.
In the remains, the team found a single tooth. Forensic anthropologists used medical and dental records to link the tooth to Barker.
Barker was the youngest of seven children. He grew up in Waycross.
Barker was a father. One of his children died in a car accident. A son, in his early thirties, lives in Arkansas.
He will be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery in early April.
More than 1800 Americans are still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.
First Coast News