Skeleton found at 1954 crash site in Laos may be remains of famed soldier 'Earthquake McGoon'

THE FEUD THAT CLOUDS A PILOT'S FINAL DESTINATION; Will remains go to Jersey or Arlington?

More than a half-century after his death, the man known as "Earthquake McGoon" was to have been buried five days ago in a New Jersey cemetery, a final resting place for an intrepid CIA pilot who died thousands of miles from home. Instead, the remains of Elizabeth native James B. McGovern Jr. - believed to be the first U.S. casualty of the conflict that would bloom into the Vietnam War - lie in legal limbo, caught between warring factions of his own family. The unusual battle has landed in the Union County Surrogate's Office, and it will be up to a Superior Court judge to settle the dispute, which boils down to one simple question: Who gets to decide where the long-dead airman is laid to rest? McGovern's nephew would like it to be a cemetery plot in the Somerset Hills. Four of McGovern's nieces insist their uncle repeatedly spoke of his desire to be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, even though he apparently does not qualify for burial there.

At just over 6-foot-1 and 250 pounds, McGovern cut an imposing figure, leading to the "Earthquake McGoon" nickname, after a bruiser of a character in the comic strip "Li'l Abner." On May 6, 1954, McGovern was flying a secret, CIA-sponsored mission over Vietnam to drop supplies to French forces during the battle of Dien Bien Phu when he was shot down. The battle was part of what was then called the Indochina conflict, the precursor to the Vietnam War. With the left wing of his C-119 hit by anti-aircraft ground fire from the Communist Viet Minh, McGovern was able to maneuver the sputtering plane 75 more miles and was within hundreds of yards of a landing field in Laos when it crashed into a hillside, cartwheeling and bursting into flames. Killed with McGovern were his American co-pilot and a French engineer.

Buried on a hillside by local Buddhist villagers, McGovern's remains would stay there for almost 50 years, until a classified 1959 CIA memo describing the likely crash site was made public eight years ago, prompting several expeditions. The remains were discovered in late 2002, and family members were notified earlier this year they had been positively identified through DNA testing. McGovern is among more than 1,350 Americans who have been identified by the Joint MIA/POW Accounting Command, the arm of the military responsible for finding, recovering and identifying missing forces from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War. McGovern had been a member of Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault's "Fighting Tigers" air group in China during World War II and was credited with destroying at least nine enemy aircraft. When the unit disbanded after the war, Chennault started a private airline, the Civil Air Transport, that was clandestinely acquired by the CIA in 1950 for covert missions in Southeast Asia. McGovern was flying one of them when he was shot down.

The burial dispute pits James B. McGovern III - named for the aviator by McGovern Jr.'s only brother, John - against his four sisters, the airman's nieces. McGovern III, who lives in a lakeside community in the Forked River section of Lacey Township, wants his uncle buried next to John McGovern in a veterans section of the Somerset Hills Memorial Park in Basking Ridge. He said his father once told him he wanted his brother buried with him. In fact, McGovern III had planned to bury his uncle after a funeral service at the same Elizabeth church where memorial services for McGovern were held in 1954. His four sisters, on the other hand, support a group of McGovern's surviving Civil Air Transport pilots who believe he should be buried at Arlington, according to one sister, who asked not to be identified but said she was speaking for all four of them. The sisters also cited an unedited tape from a History Channel documentary on Dien Bien Phu, which fell to the Communists the day after McGovern's crash. On tape, they say, their father twice tells an interviewer he wants to fulfill his brother's wish to be buried at Arlington. The documentary was made shortly before John McGovern's death in 2001.

"He says it twice: `I want him buried in Arlington National Cemetery,'" said Garry McKenna of Atlanta, a first cousin of the two McGovern brothers. McKenna has a copy of the History Channel outtake. "I believe in what John said," McKenna said. "That was his brother's wish." Minnesota lawyer Wayne "Whitey" Johnson, one of the four surviving Civil Air Transport pilots who flew with McGovern, said McGovern personally told him he wished to be buried at Arlington. "He said that if he were wiped out flying for CAT, he wanted us to try to get him into Arlington," said Johnson, 85. "We are pretty much following this wish."

ELIGIBILITY QUESTION

Based on information the family provided, it would not appear McGovern meets any of the 13 burial criteria published on the cemetery's Web site. He would have been eligible had he been on active military duty when he was killed, but he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency at the time. Arlington spokeswoman Lori Calvillo said the cemetery has yet to receive from the family either a request for burial or records that would determine whether McGovern is eligible for burial there. Calvillo said McGovern's remains may, under the rules, be placed in the cemetery's columbarium - a structure with niches for cremated remains - but the aviator's nephew ardently rejects the prospect of cremation. "The fact that he was burned on impact - why would you take him and burn him again?" McGovern III said. He added he is not opposed to having his uncle at Arlington if a burial can be arranged.

The CIA has taken a hands-off stance in the family fight. "This is something they need to resolve," agency spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. In the meantime, the aviator's nearly full skeleton, teeth and personal effects remain at the joint command's laboratory at Hickman Air Force Base in Hawaii, where they were brought after their discovery. There they will stay until the dispute is settled, whenever that may be. "I believe it is going to drag on for some time," said Christopher O'Rourke, McGovern III's probate attorney. "But I want to hope it would be a matter of weeks or months - not years."

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