ANDRE, HOWARD VINCENT JR.
Maj. Howard V. Andre, U.S. Air Force, was lost on July 8, 1969, near Xiangkhoang, Laos.
He was accounted for on April 11, 2013. DoD
Name: Howard Vincent Andre, Jr.
Rank/Branch: O4/US Air Force
Unit: 609th Special Operations Squadron
Date of Birth: 18 March 1935
Home City of Record: Memphis TN
Date of Loss: 08 July 1969
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 191643N 1030913E (YG060325)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A26A
Refno: 1464
Other Personnel in Incident: James E. Sizemore (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 October 1990 from one or more
of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 2020.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: The Douglas A26 was a twin-engine attack bomber with World War II
service. In Vietnam, it served the French in the 1950's and also the U.S. in
the early years of American involvement in Southeast Asia. In 1966, eight
A26's were deployed to Nakhon Phanom to perform hunter-killer missions
against truck convoys in southern Laos.
Maj. James E. Sizemore and Maj. Howard V. Andre Jr. comprised an A26 team
stationed at Nakhon Phanom, assigned a mission over the Plain of Jars region
of Xiangkhoang Province, Laos on July 8, 1969. Sizemore was the pilot and
Andre the navigator on the flight.
When the aircraft was about 12 miles south of the city of Ban Na Mai, it was
downed by hostile fire. A ground team subsequently furnished unspecified
information that Sizemore and Andre could not have survived. Both were
classified Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered.
Sizemore and Andre are listed among the missing because their bodies were
not recovered. The presence of enemy troops in this area makes it highly
likely that the Lao have information they could provide about their fates.
In 1973, the prisoners of war held in Vietnam were released. Laos was not
part of the Paris agreement which ended American involvement in Indochina
and no prisoners held by the Lao were ever released. Nearly 600 Americans
were left behind, abandoned by the country they proudly served.
In 1975, refugees fled Southeast Asia and brought with them stories of
Americans prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. The
reports continued to flow in as the years passed. By 1990, over 10,000
reports had been received. Some sources have passed multiple polygraph
tests, but the U.S. Government still insists that proof is not available.
Meanwhile, the Lao voice dismay about the large numbers of their people that
were killed and the fact that much of their once beautiful homeland now is
cratered like the moon from bombs dropped by American planes. They seem to
want acknowledgement that, in bombing enemy sanctuaries in Laos, we also did
great harm to the Lao people.
We are haunted by the secret war we conducted in Laos through the lives of
the Americans we left behind. Some of them are still alive. What must they
be thinking of us?
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| Press Release Flyover of Arlington National Cemetery to Honor Recently Recovered Remains of Air Force Pilots Shot-Down during Vietnam Conflict in 1969 to be Performed by Private Group After Air Force Declines. Sequester forces private, non-profit group to fill-in for the Air Force at their own expense to honor recently recovered remains of distinguished veterans killed in action. Washington, DC August 14, 2013: A flyover of military aircraft flown by private citizens will occur over Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA on September 23, 2013 at approximately 12:00pm in honor of the interment of the recently recovered remains of USAF Majors James Elmo Sizemore and Howard Andre who were both killed in action in Laos, Southeast Asia in 1969. Warrior Flight Team along with their affiliate Warrior Aviation, a non-profit organization that provides scholarships in aviation related fields to wounded serviceman from Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has committed to perform the flyover at their own expense after the proper waivers, flight plans, and clearances have been obtained from the Department of Homeland Security, Secret Service and Federal Aviation Administration. The USAF declined to support the flyover mission due to funding shortfalls as a result of the sequestration. The flyover itself will consist of four tactical jet aircraft and four historical war bird aircraft including the type Majors Sizemore and Andre were shot down in. All participating aircraft and their respective pilots (all veterans themselves) have been donated by their owners. Majors Sizemore and Andre’s aircraft was shot down by enemy fire on 8 July 1969. They were initially listed as Missing- in- Action and later reclassified as Killed-in-Action. Their crash site was located and excavated in 2012 and their remains were recovered and positively identified in 2013.
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Airmen From Vietnam War Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
announced today that the remains of Air Force pilots Maj. James E.
Sizemore of Lawrenceville, Ill., and Maj. Howard V. Andre Jr., of
Memphis, Tenn., have been identified and will be returned to their
families for burial with full military honors on Sept. 23 at
Arlington National Cemetery.
On July 8, 1969, Sizemore and Andre were on a night armed reconnaissance mission when their A-26A Invader aircraft crashed in Xiangkhoang Province, Laos. Both men died in the crash but their remains were unaccounted for until April 2013. In 1993, a joint U.S./Lao People's Democratic Republic team investigated an aircraft crash site in Laos. They recovered aircraft wreckage from an A-26. The team was not able to conduct a complete excavation of the site at that time. Twice in 2010, joint U.S./Lao People's Democratic Republic teams conducted excavations of the crash site recovering human remains, aircraft wreckage, personal effects and military equipment associated with Sizemore and Andre. In the identification of the remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as dental comparison � which matched Sizemore's records. There are more than 1,640 American service members that are still unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, call 703-699-1169 or visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo. |
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/23/vietnam-era-fliers-buried-side-by-side-at-arlington/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7TZqJMQWeU
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYE22PPGNE
Published on Jan 3, 2014
Back story for a very rare dual caisson burial at Arlington National
Cemetery for USAF Majors James Sizemore
and Howard Andre, shot
down in July
1969 and listed as KIA --
Bodies Not Recovered.
The crash site was located
in 2012 and their remains recovered and positively identified in April 2013.
Also a first
is a civilian aircraft
flyover for an actual burial at
Arlington
performed because the DOD could not support due
to sequestration
cuts.
Welcome home to two Vietnam MIAs.
Click on link below - sound on:
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A VETERAN'S STORY: The Invaders finally come
home
...On the night of July 8, 1969,
U.S. Air Force Major James Sizemore, pilot, and his
navigator, Major Howard Andre Jr., completed the final
check list on their World War II-era A-26 Douglas
Invader. The vintage fighter bomber, painted solid
black with no identification markings, was part of a
hush-hush interdiction campaign against Communist North
Vietnam’s well-protected Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos
and Cambodia....
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01/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000o2cqiEAA
On April 11, 2013, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC,
now DPAA) identified the remains of Major Howard Vincient Andre
Jr., missing from the Vietnam War.
Major Andre entered the U.S. Air Force from Oregon and was a
member of the 609th Special Operations Squadron. On July 8,
1969, he was the navigator of an A-26A Invader (tail number
unknown) that carried two crew members on a night armed
reconnaissance mission over the Plain of Jars region in
Xiangkhoang Province, Laos. About twelve miles south of Ban Na
Mai, this aircraft was shot down by enemy fighters and crashed,
and both crew members were listed as missing in action at the
time. However, in 1993, investigators discovered the Invader's
crash site in Laos. More complete excavations of the crash site
in 2010 recovered human remains that were identified as those of
Major Andre.
Major Andre is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.
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Contact: Rear Adm. Bill Sizemore, USN (ret.) For Immediate Release Phone (202) -777-3119 bsizemore@scottishrite.org |
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For Immediate Release |
Press Release
Washington, DC August 14, 2013: A flyover of military aircraft flown by private citizens will occur over Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA on September 23, 2013 at approximately 12:00pm in honor of the interment of the recently recovered remains of USAF Majors James Elmo Sizemore and Howard Andre who were both killed in action in Laos, Southeast Asia in 1969.
Warrior Flight Team along with their affiliate Warrior Aviation, a non-profit organization that provides scholarships in aviation related fields to wounded serviceman from Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has committed to perform the flyover at their own expense after the proper waivers, flight plans, and clearances have been obtained from the Department of Homeland Security, Secret Service and Federal Aviation Administration. The USAF declined to support the flyover mission due to funding shortfalls as a result of the sequestration.
The flyover itself will consist of four tactical jet aircraft and four historical war bird aircraft including the type Majors Sizemore and Andre were shot down in. All participating aircraft and their respective pilots (all veterans themselves) have been donated by their owners.
Majors Sizemore and Andre’s aircraft was shot down by enemy fire on 8 July 1969. They were initially listed as Missing- in- Action and later reclassified as Killed-in-Action. Their crash site was located and excavated in 2012 and their remains were recovered and positively identified in 2013.
|
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|
Airmen From Vietnam War Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
announced today that the remains of Air Force pilots Maj. James E.
Sizemore of Lawrenceville, Ill., and Maj. Howard V. Andre Jr., of
Memphis, Tenn., have been identified and will be returned to their
families for burial with full military honors on Sept. 23 at
Arlington National Cemetery.
On July 8, 1969, Sizemore and Andre were on a night armed reconnaissance mission when their A-26A Invader aircraft crashed in Xiangkhoang Province, Laos. Both men died in the crash but their remains were unaccounted for until April 2013. In 1993, a joint U.S./Lao People's Democratic Republic team investigated an aircraft crash site in Laos. They recovered aircraft wreckage from an A-26. The team was not able to conduct a complete excavation of the site at that time. Twice in 2010, joint U.S./Lao People's Democratic Republic teams conducted excavations of the crash site recovering human remains, aircraft wreckage, personal effects and military equipment associated with Sizemore and Andre. In the identification of the remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as dental comparison � which matched Sizemore's records. There are more than 1,640 American service members that are still unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to
account for missing Americans, call 703-699-1169 or visit the DPMO
website at
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo. |
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/23/vietnam-era-fliers-buried-side-by-side-at-arlington/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7TZqJMQWeU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYE22PPGNE
Published on Jan 3, 2014
Back story for a very rare dual caisson burial at Arlington National
Cemetery for USAF Majors James Sizemore and Howard Andre, shot down in July
1969 and listed as KIA -- Bodies Not Recovered. The crash site was located
in 2012 and their remains recovered and positively identified in April 2013.
Also a first is a civilian aircraft flyover for an actual burial at
Arlington performed because the DOD could not support due to sequestration
cuts.
Welcome home to two Vietnam MIAs.
Click on link below - sound on: