Families fight to honor those lost on Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 during Vietnam War

It was 60 years in the past {that a} navy aircraft en path to Saigon vanished over the Pacific Ocean, together with the 107 individuals on board.

What occurred is a thriller that is still unsolved, however the households of these misplaced say what issues most now could be ensuring their family members are by no means forgotten.

Jennifer Kirk’s uncle Specialist 4 Donald A. Sargent was amongst these on the aircraft. Sargent had enlisted simply out of highschool.

“He had simply turned 22 on January thirteenth of that yr,” Kirk mentioned. “He determined he was going to affix the Military and see if he might enterprise out and get one thing good for his life.”

Sargent was certainly one of 4 siblings, two women and two boys.

“He acquired chosen by John F. Kennedy to be on this particular workforce, elite workforce,” Kirk mentioned.

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On the day he left, the household remembers that Sargent struggled to say goodbye.

“He’d come again up and he mentioned, ‘I simply want yet another hug. I simply want yet another hug after which I can go,’ so he would begin down. After which he got here again for the third time and simply gave the largest longest hug and simply mentioned, ‘I gotta go. I don’t know once I’ll be again,’” Kirk mentioned.

On March 16, 1962, there have been 93 United States Military troopers, a civilian crew of 11, and three South Vietnamese troopers on board Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 on a secret reconnaissance mission to Vietnam.

They disappeared and not using a hint over the Pacific.

“The cab driver simply handed him this telegram, and it mentioned, , ‘We remorse to tell you . . . ’” Kirk mentioned.

They’re the phrases navy households worry most.

For Sargent’s mom, it was merely an excessive amount of.

“She by no means accepted it, and so for the total time from that second till she handed, she all the time swore that he was coming residence like there was little doubt in her thoughts,” Kirk mentioned.

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When Sargent’s trunk of belongings was returned to his household, his mom refused to let anybody open it.

“As a result of he was going to open it when he got here residence. And in order that’s how life was after he disappeared. There wasn’t actually a grieving course of,” Kirk mentioned.

Due to the character of the mission, the households have been left with few solutions and even fewer honors.

“There was no navy funeral,” Kirk mentioned. “There was no folded flag given to the household.”

When the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was constructed, the households hoped their troopers would lastly be acknowledged for his or her service However as soon as once more, their hopes have been dashed.

“They despatched again a message saying that he wasn’t eligible to be on the wall as a result of he didn’t die in fight in Vietnam,” Kirk mentioned. “It was actually exhausting on the household. Not having him anyplace. They only felt like the federal government was having them forgotten, that he didn’t exist.”

The households have joined collectively to foyer to have their family members included.

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Final summer season, Senator Gary Peters of Michigan launched Senate Invoice 2571.

If handed, it will add the names of the troopers on Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 to the Vietnam Struggle Memorial.

“These have been people who have been going into hurt’s approach to struggle for his or her nation,” mentioned Peters. “They have been misplaced on their approach to that struggle however have been nonetheless a part of the battle. Had it not been for the battle, they might not have been on that airplane. They must be acknowledged as of us who, who gave their lives and repair to their nation.”

It’s an honor lengthy overdue says Kirk.

“It could imply all the pieces to those households to get them on the wall, Vietnam Wall. It proves that they did dwell within the eyes of the federal government,” Kirk mentioned. “They gained’t ever be forgotten being on that wall. Hundreds of thousands of individuals cross by means of that wall yearly, 1000’s every day, and his identify and their names could be mentioned.”

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The Senate invoice is presently sitting within the Committee for Power and Pure Sources. It’s co-sponsored by Senators Stabenow, Blackburn, Shaheen, Hyde-Smith, and Wicker, however wants extra assist to maneuver ahead Earlier exceptions have been made so as to add different names to the wall. The households are urging everybody to voice their assist for the invoice to their senators.

“Making an attempt so as to add names, is, has confirmed to be harder than I feel any of us would have preferred it to be, however we’re not going to surrender, quit the struggle,” mentioned Peters. “We’re going to do all the pieces we will to make it possible for these people who gave the final word sacrifice are acknowledged for that sacrifice.”

In 2019, Kirk and her household, together with her father, went to Washington to fulfill with others who misplaced family members on the flight.

“That’s the primary time that my dad truly spoke in my lifetime about his brother,” Kirk mentioned. “My dad, after we left Washington, he stood just a little taller and walked just a little prouder. And from that second on, has been in a position to have dialogue about his brother and what it was like and the way he felt.”

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It was important for one more cause too.

“That’s when he determined he was going to open the trunk,” Kirk mentioned.

They have been hoping for paperwork, maybe some clue to the character of the mission.

“In fact, there have been no paperwork in there, nevertheless it did have his uniform in pristine situation, not a moth gap in it, a Fifties tuxedo, his navy jacket, and it did have just a little notepad within the pocket nevertheless it didn’t have any writing in it,” Kirk mentioned.

On the sixtieth anniversary of the aircraft’s disappearance final month, households gathered at a memorial in Maine, erected by Morrill Worcester, founding father of the non-profit Wreaths Throughout America.

The inscription on the monument reads: “Lacking in motion; Presumed useless. Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 went lacking on March 16, 1962, with 93 U.S. Military troopers on board. These males and their flight crew perished in what would turn into one of many greatest aviation mysteries out of the Vietnam Struggle period.”

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It’s a particular place for the households, however they’re decided to see their bigger mission by means of.

“I feel each individual that signed their identify to go and shield the US of America must be on that wall. Sometime. I’m hoping so,” Kirk mentioned.