He had written an article he said proved that her brother had been buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery on May 28, 1984. They never got updates on recovery efforts. Twenty-six years after he died, 1st Lt. Michael Blassie came home. It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Michael Joseph Townsend Sr. of Snow Hill, Maryland, born in Salisbury, Maryland, who passed away on February 23, 2023, at the age of 72, leaving to mourn family and friends. But Mrs. Blassie also had a hunch. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). Blassie dropped in low for a bombing run on attacking forces when enemy anti-aircraft fire boomed from the ground. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. Vacant, it will likely remain. For decades, the United States has honored its wartime dead by designating for burial at Arlington National Cemetery an unknown soldier, one whose anonymous tomb represents all the dead comrades and honors all their deeds. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. That single set of remains was known only as X-26, but his actual name was Michael Blassie. The chain of custody began with Captain William C. Parnell, an operations officer at An Lc. I didnt even know how to go about college. Oops, something didn't work. Verify and try again. She attended Wellston High School but left after three years to work as a nurses aide at DePaul Hospital. #inline-recirc-item--id-91b39784-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d, #right-rail-recirc-item--id-91b39784-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d { Though discovered in South Vietnam at the crash site, along with personal effects and survival gear, the remains of US Air Force pilot 1st Lt. Michael Blassie got labeled Unknown. It took the hard work of an eccentric Vietnam veteran activist, an investigative reporter, and the Blassie family to cut through years of bureaucratic bungling, official stonewalling, and government deceit to rescue Blassie from the Tomb and bring him home. On July 10, Blassie's remains were transported to his family in St. Louis, and were later reinterred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. From a computer genius to a popular sitcom star, talented women have made their mark in the U.S. military. They were a match and Michael Blassies remains were returned to his family. A 1970 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, he served in the Vietnam War as a 1st Lieutenant the 8th Special Operations Squadron. It can represent all soldiers. On May 14, 1998, the remains were exhumed and tested, revealing the "unknown" soldier to be Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie. You can watch his conversation with Colonel Patricia Blassie on A Veterans Story on the VBCs YouTube channel, youtube.com/veteransbreakfastclub. With the invention of the polymerase chain reaction in 1985, DNA analysis moved to the forefront of forensic technologies. Another perspective on this issue is that all soldiers are unknown. On May 28, 1984, a Third Army Old Guard horse-drawn caisson moved slowly along Constitution Avenue. Then, in January 1972, he joined the 8th Special Operations Squadron of the 377th Air Base Wing at Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon. "X-26" remained in Arlington with his unknown comrades, watched by the solemn Old Guard, until 1998, when new questions about Blassie's whereabouts surfaced. But not all remains can be identified with such methods. After the Civil War, the Union buried 2,111 soldiers in a mass grave in Arlington that they purposely built in the middle of Robert E. Lees rose garden. Calhoon assumed that Michaels remains would be returning to his family. Michael Joseph Townsend Sr. Obituary. She was sad about Michaels death but was happy to have him back, Patricia Blassie said. Its just an outsiders way of honoring all of your sacrifices. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. If they had, they might have hung up on him. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? Its like the reverse of this 99pi story! In 1984, on Memorial Day, Blassie's remains - four ribs, pelvis and the upper part of an arm - were buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington. It turns out that, unlike previous wars, the Vietnam War didnt produce many Unknowns. Armed with the documents, he teamed up with veteran CBS correspondent, Eric Engberg. By no means, the office reported back, is there anything to substantiate that your brother is in the Tomb of the Unknown.. Whatever was known about the remains of the Vietnam Unknown had never been revealed. Photo by Erik M. Lunsford elunsford@post-dispatch.com Jean Blassie lost. By taking towns and cities in the South, the North Vietnamese sought to gain territory and improve their bargaining position at the Paris Peace talks underway. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. He died in 1991. Just to eliminate doubt, Patricia traveled to the Air Force Casualty Office at Randolph AFB in San Antonio to ask if there might be any truth to Sampleys claims. The date, location of the crash, bone fragments from the body and remnants of his flight suit and parachute led to the conclusion that it was Michael. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}. Western reporters called it a mini-Stalingrad, the ugliest kind of siege warfare. Blassie, 24, an Air Force Academy graduate and the oldest of the five children of a St. Louis meat cutter, was flying an A-37 when he was shot down over An Loc, about 60 miles north of Saigon in South Vietnam, on May 11, 1972. Subscribe with this special offer to keep reading, (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). Blassie was declared missing in action and presumed dead. Check out member benefits and perks . (AP Photo/James A. Finley), Pat Blassie (second from left) points out to her mother Jean Blassie (third from left) and her sister Mary Hart (right) the C-130 Hercules plane as it arrives at Scott Air Force Base with their brother Michael Blassie's remains. .component--type-recirculation .item:nth-child(5) { Even though he knew about the missing wallet, the head of the lab, using now outdated techniques, determined that the remains did not match Michael Blassies physical description. That Michael might be in the Tomb of the Unknown . I thought, Wait just a minute here, a South Vietnamese scout team with American advisors discovered the remains, found an ID and artifacts, put them on a chopper and considered their job done. Blassie, who was killed in Vietnam. Instead, they were simply designated as BTB believed to be Michael Blassie. Pete Mecca is a speaker, author, and Vietnam Air Force veteran who runs VeteransArticle.com and hosts VBCs A Veterans Story every second Thursday online. Dad set up a little memorial in the basement and would go down there all the time and just sit., When something like this happens in a family, [it] can bring a family together or tear it apart. Members of Blassie's family could not be reached immediately for comment yesterday. A funeral Mass will be at 9:30 a.m. today at Rose Philippine Duchesne Church, 2560 Parker Road, Florissant. The President also acted as next of kin to the unidentified Blassie by accepting the interment flag at the end of the ceremony. The Medal of Honor bestowed upon him as the Vietnam Unknown was not transferred to Blassie after his remains were identified.[6]. Michael Blassie later received an appointment to the Air Force Academy. First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie (April 4, 1948 - May 11, 1972) was an officer in the United States Air Force. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? In my 17-year-old mind, that sounded like a good deal.. Dubbed the "super-tweet . Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. His body wouldnt be coming home. To many Vietnam veterans, Patricia explains, it was pretty upsetting to have the Vietnam Unknown disinterred. On March 30, 1972, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) launched a massive surprise attack on the South. . Railton would spend his nights conducting funeral services over the often unidentifiable remains of soldiers ripped apart by shellfire, sometimes burying them on the spot or en masse in the giant craters the shells had left behind. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. Forensic anthropologists took the aged and damaged samples of bone for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing. He told her that he had been researching who was shot down on the date of Michaels death and he believed that her brothers remains were in the Tomb of the Unknowns. Major James Connally, Blassies flight commander, described the tragic incident in a letter to Michaels parents: Mikes plane was hit and began streaming fuel. For 14 years, the remains of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie lay beneath the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington. Id left school early that day, and I looked out the window when I heard a car door slam. Many thanks for such a great show, this episode and all the others~ Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. She permitted Vince Gonzalez to access a trove of new documents through the Freedom of Information Act pertaining to the selection and entombment of the Vietnam Unknowns remains. Sampley had come across some second-hand accounts suggesting that Americas only set of unknown remains from Vietnam had been recovered from an aircraft that had been shot down in 1972. For me the one with the most incredible presentation would have to be in Athens, Greece. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. They interviewed Parnell, by then a retired Colonel living in Florida. Test your Navy knowledge with this Navy history quiz by Military.com. By the time the package arrived in Hawaii, the wallet and ID were missing, presumed stolen during storage or transit. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Weve updated the security on the site. We've created a quiz to test your ability to recognize military aircraft. The six fragments in file X-26 were the exception. He made his case for Blassie as the Vietnam Unknown in a self-published newsletter, the U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen announced that the remains would be disinterred and the DNA tested. They had a letter from his flight leader, James Connally, who recapped what had happened., Still, without remains, there was a terrible sense of open-ended grief. The music is an original piece by our talented composer, Sean Real. The Unknown Soldier can be about more than a dwindling subclass of soldiers that disappeared without record. Jean Frances Adrian grew up in Jennings. In celebration of the Marine Corps' birthday, Military.com has put together this Marine Corps history quiz. Updated: June 21, 2016 . The writer had been combing through military records, he said, and found that the Air Force had found the wreckage of Michaels plane five months after he was shot down, 60 miles north of Saigon. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed Michael Blassie was therefore ruled out as a possible match. English Tony. Veteran Dispatch in 1994 and 1996 had made the claim that Blassie was the Unknown, drawing on Defense Department records. Webb refused. Signaling its determination to have its Vietnam Unknown, the Pentagon gave Webb six months to make a positive ID of X-26. DNA is also stored in tiny, energy-producing structures in the cells, called mitochondria. After 26 years, the family of Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie, buried the pilot Saturday, ending a painful mystery that began in 1972. . The DNA technology that could conclusively identify the remains was just around the corner, but in 1984 they were ordered to prepare X-26 for burial. But in 1956, one small, seemingly innocent change to the formula of the Unknown would prove problematic: we began to add another set of unidentified remains for every subsequent war. She was 90 and had been a longtime Florissant resident before moving to Mary Queen and Mother Center in St. Louis. Thanks for your help! After Blassie's family secured permission . "He and. Jean Blassie holds a photo of her son Michael Blassie while seated in the living room of her apartment in Florissant, on May 2, 1998. Pilots loved itbecause being that close the ground heightened the sense of flight and speed. Your playlist is stored within your cookies, clearing your browser data may remove your playlist. Placing a Medal of Honor on X-26s flag-draped casket, the President concluded, Thank you, dear son, and may God cradle you in his loving arms.. The remains were confirmed to be those of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie. Jump to: Bio graphy Family Photos Comments Obit uary. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? The Armed Forces have adopted the latest advances in fingerprint and dental identification, and forensic anthropology and radiology. Morphological approximation presumed that one could determine personal characteristics like age and height by careful examination of bone fragments. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. After petitioning the United States Government for permission, his family had his body exhumed. After graduating from St. Louis University High School he entered the United States Air Force Academy, graduating in 1970. Family members linked to this person will appear here. The gravesite of 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on Thursday, June 13, 2013. These sources reinforced the probability that Michael Blassies remains were in the Tomb. Veteran Dispatch. The city of An Loc was totally leveled it looked like Hiroshima, says Chris Calhoon who was stationed there as an Army Ranger. At 67, Mrs. Blassie went back to work as a sales clerk at Dillards. DNA samples were taken from Michaels mother Jean and his sister Judy and tested against the remains. Maj. Allan J. Kellogg Jr. during a ceremony at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on May 17, 1984,[2] and were transported aboard the USSBrewton to Naval Air Station Alameda. Michael Joseph Blassie, the oldest of five children of a St. Louis meat cutter, entered the Air Force Academy in 1966 and received his officer's commission in June 1970. A decade later, however, questions began to arise about the identity of this unknown soldier. She took on the military, won, and brought him back for burial in his hometown of St. Louis. His sister Pat described the evidence succinctly: "The trail leads to the tomb." And you didnt mention the shoes the specially designed shoes the sentries wear are pretty cool. Try again later. However, analysis at the time suggested that the remains were not a compelling match to Blassie's age and height. 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