Remains of Vietnam War Airman Laid to Rest

The remains of A1C Jerry Mack Wall, an airman missing in action in Vietnam since May 1966, were laid to rest during a burial with full military honors at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, according to Air Force Special Operations Command officials. The burial took place on Oct. 26, three days after Pentagon officials announced that Defense Department forensic scientists had recovered and identified Wall’s remains. “I’m so very proud of my nation that persevered for so long in searching for my father’s remains,” said Wall’s daughter Lea Ann Wall McCann in AFSOC’s Oct. 29 release. “It’s been a long journey home,” she added. A native of Jacksonville, Tex., Wall was a 24-year-old loadmaster with the 310th Air Commando Squadron who died when enemy fire brought down his C-123B Provider during a nighttime flare-drop mission over Binh Dinh, South Vietnam, on May 18, 1966. Wall was one of five crewmembers. Between 2007 and 2012, joint US-Vietnamese teams investigated the crash site and recovered human remains, aircraft wreckage, and other artifacts that led to his identification. (Hurlburt report by Capt. Kristen D. Duncan)