Remains of El Reno serviceman killed in Vietnam identified
The remains of Lt. Col. Clarence F. Blanton, of El Reno, have been identified and will be returned to Oklahoma for burial with full military honors Saturday. Blanton, 46, was commander at Lima Site 85 in Laos when it was overrun by Vietnamese commandos in 1968.
The remains of an El Reno Air Force officer missing for 44 years have been identified and will be returned to Oklahoma for burial with full military honors on Saturday.
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Lt. Col. Clarence F. Blanton, 46, was among 11 Americans who went missing after North Vietnamese commandos overran a tactical air navigation radar site on a Laotian mountaintop March 11, 1968.
Blanton was U.S. commander at the site known as Lima Site 85, and is the second of the 11 missing servicemen to be identified, according to U.S. Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office.
Blanton and 18 other men were assigned to the radar site on a 5,600-foot mountain peak known as Phao Pha Thi in Houaphan province, Laos, when it was overrun. Eight of the men were rescued that day by U.S. helicopters.
A joint recovery operation was instigated by the United States and Lao People's Democratic Republic in 1994 with no results. A second operation in 2003 resulted in the discovery of one of the missing servicemen, but logistics and safety concerns precluded further recovery attempts, the department said in a press released issued Tuesday.
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