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- The remains of a soldier from Carleton who the military has listed as missing in action for more than 40 years reportedly have been recovered and positively identified.
Army Staff Sgt. Melvin C. Dye, a 1966 graduate of Airport High School, was killed when his helicopter was shot down during a secret mission in Laos on Feb. 19, 1968. His body was never recovered at the time because of the intense heat from the smoldering wreckage.
A rescue team never found any trace of three Americans at the site or in the surrounding area.
For the next 41 years, many family members held out hope that Sgt. Dye was alive and living somewhere in southeast Asia. But today, members of the Department of Defense were expected to meet with two of Sgt. Dye's surviving sisters to explain what they believe occurred that day and afterward.
Newport resident Tim Thompson, Sgt. Dye's nephew, said Army officials told him that bone fragments and teeth belonging to his uncle were recovered in the jungles of Laos and taken to Hawaii where a large operation exists to help identify the remains of lost servicemen. Two years ago, government officials took DNA samples from family members and, evidently, the DNA matched the remains of Sgt. Dye.
"I appreciate what they're doing," Mr. Thompson said. "They're putting this to rest for my mom and her family."
Mr. Thompson's mother is Betty Ball, Sgt. Dye's sister. She was living in Carleton when Sgt. Dye came to live with her in the 1960s. He was 14 at the time and arrived from West Virginia. After graduating from Airport, he got a job in a factory before being drafted. On March 23, 1967, he was sent to Vietnam.
Sgt. Dye was just days short of completing his 13-month tour when he volunteered for a dangerous emergency extraction mission in Laos, about four miles from the South Vietnamese border.
Sgt. Dye, a member of 57th Assault Helicopter Co., 52nd Aviation Battalion, was the engineer on a Huey helicopter during the mission.
The aircraft carried a crew of four. The chopper landed in Laos and picked up the team amid heavy enemy fire. According to military accounts, the crew was badly outnumbered and under intense fire. A soldier by the name of Fred Zabitosky held off the enemy on the ground during the extraction.
The helicopter successfully retrieved the soldiers and was lifting off when it was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade, exploded and crashed. Sgt. Zabitosky was thrown out of the chopper and severely injured.
He suffered a broken back, broken ribs and burns. But he managed to save the pilot and also pulled the co-pilot from the wreckage, although he later died. For his heroic deeds that day, Sgt. First Class Zabitosky in 1969 received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the United States military's highest decoration.
Mr. Thompson said the story about his uncle intrigued him and throughout his life, he has researched the events that occurred that day. He said he spoke to Sfc. Zabitosky in 1993 about his uncle. Sfc. Zabitosky died in 1996.
"He swears the rocket landed directly under Melvin's seat on take-off," Mr. Thompson said. "It flipped and exploded. There was a lot of screaming."
But the remains of three members of that mission were never recovered. In addition to Sgt. Dye, door gunner Sgt. Robert Griffith and Staff Sgt. Douglas Glover were listed as MIA.
Since the remains were never recovered, Mr. Thompson said friends, his uncle's fiancée at the time and family members held out hope that Sgt. Dye survived the attack and was perhaps captured and remained a POW in the region all those years.
"My grandfather refused to accept it," Mr. Thompson said. "I think they expected to see him walk through the door one day."
Because he was so young, Mr. Thompson, 46, said he doesn't remember much of his uncle, except for his glasses. He also remembers Sgt. Dye's 1957 Chevrolet that remained parked in the driveway and stayed there until it was finally towed away by a junkyard.
For the next four decades, the community has honored Sgt. Dye as the only Monroe County veteran from Vietnam still listed as MIA. His name is on memorials at Heck Park, the Village of Carleton and in Lansing.
This afternoon members of the Department of Defense were expected to meet in Wyandotte with Mr. Thompson, his mother and one of his aunts to answer their questions about Sgt. Dye. It finally could close a chapter that has remained open for more than four decades.
Once the meeting is completed, it is expected that the Army will have Sgt. Dye's remains buried in Arlington Cemetery with full military honors.
"If they can convince my mom that it's him and she accepts this, then it's done," Mr. Thompson said. "People need closure."
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English
1947 - 1968 (20 years)
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