Aviator from N.J. missing in Vietnam identified and buried - New York News | NYC Breaking News

Aviator from N.J. missing in Vietnam identified and buried

The remains of two Air Force aviators, including one from New Jersey, who crashed during the Vietnam War have been identified and buried with full military honors, the Pentagon said.

Maj. Aado Kommendant of Lakewood, N.J., and Lt. Col. Charles M. Walling of Phoenix, Ariz., were flying a mission in an F-4C Phantom II jet over Song Be Province, Vietnam, on August 8, 1966, when they crashed, the Defense Department said.

The military's search and rescue efforts in the days after the crash turned up nothing.

In 1994, a joint American and Vietnamese team excavated the crash site and found Walling's dog tag and other military equipment.

Then finally in 2010, human remains and other evidence was found during another search of the site.

Using circumstantial evidence and mitochondrial DNA, scientists identified the remains.

Walling was buried on June 15 and Kommendant was buried August 8, 2012, the 46th anniversary of the crash, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.