VIETNAM SOLDIER MISSING SINCE 1971 WILL BE BURIED IN RAMONA
Army accounts for local man who died when helicopter went down
A missing Ramona soldier killed in Vietnam War combat more than 51 years ago is returning home after his remains were identified by DNA analysis and other evidence.
U.S. Army Pfc. Thomas F. Green, who has been lost since 1971, will be interred Feb. 23 at Nuevo Memory Gardens Cemetery in Ramona.
Green’s older brother, David Green of Escondido, said Green’s disappearance was “devastating for the whole family.” Other survivors include brothers Michael, who lives in Spokane, Wash., and Tim, who lives in Mira Mesa.
“It was kind of surreal,” David Green said of the Army’s success at identifying his brother. “It was elation and sadness together, but we finally have closure. We knew
what had happened with the aircraft crash, but we still don’t really know the cause of death in the crash.”
A native of Ramona, Thomas Green was assigned to the 68th Aviation Company, 52nd Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group. He was serving as the door gunner aboard a CH-47B Chinook helicopter on Oct. 26, 1971, when it went down over water in bad weather while flying from Tuy Hoa to Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, according to Army officials.
Green was 19 years old at the time the aircraft went down.
During search and rescue operations following the crash, remains of four of the 10 soldiers on board were recovered, according to the Army, but Green was not accounted for.
An unsuccessful recovery attempt was made in 1974 when divers from the Joint Casualty Resolution Center dove on what was believed to be the crash site. A number of investigation and recovery efforts took place between 1994 and 2021, with a June 2021 recovery mission finding possible human remains and material evidence.
Green was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on Aug. 23, 2022, the Army reported. His remains were identified using material and circumstantial evidence as well as anthropological and mitochon