The last Australian Missing In Action from the Vietnam War now lies in his native soil.
Posted on 09/07/2009 4:13:47 PM PDT by naturalman1975
SHANE Herbert was 11 years old when his older brother Michael went missing on a night bombing mission in Vietnam.
Yesterday, as a grown man, Shane wept as he spoke of his RAAF pilot brother whose life was cut short at 24, with his body lying in the jungle for the next 39 years.
"We all lived in hope and believed no news was good news," Mr Herbert told more than 300 mourners gathered for his brother's state funeral.
"My father and mother, who were younger than what I am now, I just don't know how you kept going," he told the funeral at St Francis Xavier Catholic Cathedral.
Buried in his home town of Adelaide yesterday, Flying Officer Michael Herbert was the last Australian killed in Vietnam to be farewelled at home.
Pilot Officer Robert Carver, Herbert's navigator on their final flight in November 1970, was buried in Toowoomba last week.
The long quest to find their remains was "the proverbial needle in a haystack" according to leaders of the recovery mission, who suspect the cause of the crash may never be known.
Flying well above the range of anti-aircraft artillery and in fine weather, the Canberra bomber dropped off the radar only 70 seconds after confirming a successful bomb drop. Three days of searching failed to find any trace of the aircraft or its crew.
The pair were the last of six Australian servicemen, listed as missing in Vietnam at the end of hostilities, to be found and returned to Australia.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
The last Australian Missing In Action from the Vietnam War now lies in his native soil.
Welcome home, and may God grant you peace at last.
Being a warrior he probably thought about his possible death, and he probably would not have been surprised at the possibility of a combat pilot being his nation’s last war dead body returned, but I bet this fighting man would have been shocked and dissappinted to know that the headline read “Last missing Vietnam War VICTIM buried at home”.
Home at last! God bless you and your family.
Welcome home to your native land, soldier. Thank you for your sacrifice.
Very nice. Thanks.
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