The Vietnam veterans memorial in Washington D.C. honors those who gave their lives in the war. More than 58,000 names are etched in the black marble wall, listing those killed or missing in action.
But the families of some veterans feel their loved ones were overlooked. They are the service members who perished on Tiger Flight 739 in March 1962.
Tiger Flight 739 was transporting 93 American service members and 3 members of the South Vietnamese military from California to Saigon. After refueling in Guam, the flight continued on heading to Clark Air Force base in the Philippines when it disappeared. Despite a massive search, no survivors or even wreckage of the aircraft was ever found.
Today, family members are still searching for answers about what happened to their loved ones on board the flight and are also fighting for them to be recognized as Vietnam veterans.
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“I do feel frustrated. It’s almost as if they never existed as soldiers. It’s almost like they don’t matter, that their deaths don’t matter,” Dianna Taylor Crumpler told the Associated Press. Crumpler's brother, James Henry Taylor, an Army chaplain, died on the flight.
Over the weekend, family members gathered to commemorate a privately funded memorial for those service members who perished on Flight 739. Located in Columbia Falls, Maine the memorial features a slab of granite with a marble marker that lists the names of the Tiger Flight service members.
For the surviving family members, the memorial is a first step towards having their loved ones acknowledged as veterans of the Vietnam War.
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Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.