[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 167 (Tuesday, October 22, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   IN HONOR OF 81 AIRBORNE SOLDIERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM ARMED 
                                 FORCES

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALAN S. LOWENTHAL

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 22, 2019

  Mr. LOWENTHAL. Madam Speaker, I rise today in honor of the 81 
Airborne Soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, whose 
remains will finally be laid to rest on Saturday, October 26th, in 
Little Saigon, Orange County, California, part of my 47th Congressional 
District.
  In 1965, an American C-123 carrying four American crew members and 81 
South Vietnamese Airborne soldiers was shot down in a remote and 
contested area during the Vietnam War, killing all those onboard. In 
1974, the crash site was visited, and the remains were recovered, 
however, they were commingled together. The American crew members were 
later identified and were given a proper burial.
  The remains of South Vietnamese soldiers were never identified, and 
they were believed to have been members of the 72 Company of the elite 
7 Airborne Battalion of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces. These 
unknown heroes are now ``Men Without a Country,'' for that the Republic 
to which they gave their lives on behalf of no longer exist. Their 
remains have been sitting at the U.S. military's POW/MIA lab in Hawaii 
since 1986 and the current regime in Vietnam has twice declined to 
accept their return.
  It was unclear how these 81 unknown soldiers could receive proper 
honor and burial until the efforts of former Navy Secretary and Senator 
Jim Webb, who served as a Marine infantry officer in Vietnam. Senator 
Webb has spent the last two years working intricately with both 
diplomatic and legal fronts to successfully arranged for the proper 
honoring and interment of these heroes. Finally, these Airborne 
soldiers will be laid to rest with full military honor and proper 
protocols of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces. They will be 
remembered and honored with a ceremony at the Vietnam War Memorial, 
also known as Freedom Park in the City of Westminster, California and 
interned at the Vietnamese Boat People Cemetery inside the Westminster 
Memorial Park, one of the largest Vietnamese American cemeteries in our 
nation. This marks an end to an epic journey of soldiers who fought and 
died for the ideals of freedom and democracy to be rested with the 
people whom they defended.
  I thank Senator Jim Webb, the Lost Soldiers Foundation, the Republic 
of Vietnam Airborne Association's National and Local Chapter, and 
everyone involved for working together to finally honor these 81 
soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam after 54 years 
of their sacrifices. The United States honor the sacrifices of our 
ally, the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces.

                          ____________________