Daughter of MIA will finally lay him to rest

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- The daughter of an Air Force navigator listed as missing in action after his jet crashed in Laos 28 years ago plans to finally lay her father to rest with a full military funeral service next month at Arlington National Cemetery.

"Your mind tells you there's no way he could be alive, but you hold out hope," said Kim Heddinger. "He died in 1972, but it still feels like yesterday."

Now 34, Heddinger was just 6 years old when she was told her father's F-4D Phantom jet crashed in Laos near the Vietnam border.

Capt. Mason Burnham had been listed as "missing in action" until about 1975, when he was declared dead at the request of his second wife. Last August, the Air Force released papers documenting a seven-year investigation that finally identified his remains.

The May 25 service in Washington, D.C., also will honor Maj. Thomas Amos of Missouri, the pilot, who also died in the crash. It will include a 21-gun salute and a fighter jet flyover in "missing man" formation.

Burnham joined the Air Force in 1969 after graduating with a business degree from the University of Oregon.

He was a 29-year-old navigator on the plane when he and Amos were shot down near the Ho Chi Minh Trail, used by the North Vietnamese to transport troops and ammunition.

Amos and Burnham were escorting an AC-130 gunship and had just begun a bombing run when the gunship crew abruptly lost radio contact with them, according to Air Force documents.

Witnesses saw a fireball but no parachutes.

The wreckage wasn't discovered until 1989, when two Vietnamese brothers stumbled on it as they searched for incense wood in a steep area of Quang Nam-Pa Province.

It took several years for the news to reach the Air Force, which sent a team to interview the brothers in May 1993. Recovery efforts began a year later.

Because of the rugged terrain, the excavation was slow and dangerous. The search was called off in June 1998 after several unexploded bombs were found in the area, but by that time, searchers had recovered enough bone fragments, teeth and clothing to make positive identification of Amos and Burnham.

Among the recovered items were a piece of Burnham's fighter jacket and his dog tags, returned to Heddinger last summer. She has worn the tags almost every day since.

At the May service, she plans to give one of the tags to her half brother from her father's second marriage.

Another service for her father is planned for June 17 at Restlawn Memorial Gardens in Salem.

Heddinger, a real estate agent, has drawn some comfort from a box filled with mementos collected by her grandmother.

Inside are poignant letters and silly cards; her father's Purple Heart, Third Oak Leaf Cluster and Distinguished Flying Cross medals; and the Air Force telegrams and subsequent letters announcing his disappearance.

© 2000 The Associated Press.
All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed.