CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) —Fifty-nine years after a plane disappeared on a military mission to Vietnam, a memorial will be unveiled this weekend to honor the 93 American soldiers who were on board, including a Chicago Army private.
It was Flying Tiger Line Flight 739. The prop airliner, a Lockheed Constellation, had just refueled in Guam before it disappeared on March 16, 1962 over the Pacific.
One of the 93 American Army electronics and communications specialists was Lawrence Perkins of Chicago.
Another was Staff Sgt. Melvin Lewis Hatt of Lansing, Michigan.
No trace was ever found.
“I don’t like to go with the conspiracy theory, but in my heart of hearts, I think it was sabotage,” Donna Ellis Cornell, Hatt’s daughter, said this week.
This weekend, she and some other soldiers’ family members will gather in Maine, where a memorial is being unveiled.
For years, she and others have tried in vain to get the 93 names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington.
“They die twice. The first time they die, and then they die again if they’re forgotten.”
Stars and Stripes has posted an unofficial passenger list of the soldiers who were on the flight. They include additional Illinoisans and a soldier from Hammond, Indiana.
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