PADGETT DAVID EUGENE

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Name: MAJ David Eugene Padgett
Status: Remains Returned from an incident on 02/06/1969 while performing the duty of Pilot.
Declared dead on 10/15/1979.
Age at death: 24.7
Date of Birth: 06/02/1944
Home City: Washington, IN
Service: EN branch of the reserve component of the U.S. Army.
Unit: 282 AHC, 212 CAB
Major organization: 1st Aviation Brigade
Flight class: 67-26
Service: EN branch of the U.S. Army.
The Wall location: 33W-073
Short Summary: Crashed returning to LZ Vandergrif because of bad weather.
Aircraft: UH-1H tail number 67-17499
Call sign: BLACKCAT
Country: South Vietnam
MOS: *
Primary cause: A/C Accident
Major attributing cause: aircraft connected not at sea
Compliment cause: vehicular accident
Vehicle involved: helicopter
Position in vehicle: aircraft commander
Vehicle ownership: government
Started Tour: 02/27/1968
"Official" listing: helicopter air casualty - other aircrew
The initial status of this person was: non-hostile missing - bonified
Length of service: *
Location: Quang Tri Province I Corps.
Military grid coordinates of event: YD182212

Additional information about this casualty:
Subject: Fwd: Vietnam MIAs Identified NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense No. 571-02 (703) 697-5131(media) IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 6, 2002 (703) 428-0711(public/industry) VIETNAM MIAS IDENTIFIED The remains of three U.S. soldiers previously unaccounted for from the war in Vietnam have been identified and will be buried as a group at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, Nov. 8. They are Capt. Ronald D. Briggs, Philadelphia, Sgt. 1st Class Robert C. O'Hara, Lost Nation, Iowa; and Maj. David E. Padgett, Washington, Ind. On Feb. 6, 1969, Padgett and O'Hara were crewmembers on a UH-1H Huey helicopter, flying Briggs and three other soldiers on an emergency resupply mission in South Vietnam. While enroute from a landing zone in the Quang Tri province, the crew radioed that the flight was returning due to poor weather conditions and reduced visibility. When the flight did not return, a search and rescue mission was initiated, but was unsuccessful in locating the missing aircraft. In December 1993, a joint U.S. and Vietnam investigation team, led by the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, interviewed several local informants in Quang Tri province. One claimed to possess the remains of a missing serviceman. Two months later, the remains were repatriated to U.S. officials and submitted to the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI) for analysis. On July 16, 1995, another joint U.S. and Vietnam team interviewed a witness who gave information about a helicopter crash site in the Huong Hoa District. After investigating the site, the team recovered aircraft debris, personal artifacts, and human remains that corresponded to the missing aircraft and its crewmembers. This additional evidence was also transported to CILHI. From July 1996 to October 1996, additional remains, personal artifacts, and aircraft debris were recovered from the crash site. Some of the remains were submitted by CILHI to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory for mitochondrial DNA analysis. By analyzing dental records and comparing the DNA of skeletal fragments found at the crash site to that of maternal family members, CILHI scientists were able to make identifications of the missing servicemen. The remains of three others from the same incident were previously identified.

Reason: aircraft lost or crashed
Casualty type: Non-hostile - died while missing
single male U.S. citizen
Race: Caucasian
Religion: Roman Catholic
Burial information: ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, VA (GROUP)
The following information secondary, but may help in explaining this incident.
Category of casualty as defined by the Army: non-battle dead Category of personnel: active duty Army Military class: officer
This record was last updated on 11/07/2002

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Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023