We often hear stories about veterans who come home after being gone for quite some time. It happens in any war and it is often a very moving experience for everyone involved. Now that 50 years have passed, a Vietnam veteran is finally coming home again after disappearing at sea during a thunderstorm. He is being laid to rest.
Navy Reserve Cmdr. Charles B. Goodwin was 25 years old when he left his home in Haskell, Texas. He entered the cockpit of an RF-8A Crusader and it took off from the aircraft carrier, USS Coral Sea. The date was September 8, 1956 and the Associated Press was reporting that Goodwin was taking part in a combat mission during the Vietnam war. There is no way that he could have known it would be his final flight.
Within minutes after taking off from the aircraft carrier, Goodwin radioed back that he was caught in a thunderstorm. That would be his final transmission.
Search and rescue missions continued to be launched on both the land and sea for the missing pilot. No remains or records were ever discovered. Nine years after he vanished, he was declared missing in action.
Over 50 years have passed since that time and the remains of the Navy pilot will now be returned to his family. They were identified in May, 2017.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, in 1988, information was provided by a Vietnamese refugee regarding the possible remains of good one.
“Between April 1993 and December 2016, multiple attempts were made by the Vietnamese Office for Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP) and Joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams to locate the crash site, but attempts were unsuccessful,” the DPAA wrote on Oct. 4.
Scientists, who were working along with the DPAA eventually were able to identify the remains of Goodwin through anthropological and dental analysis.
Those remains were brought back to American soil for burial, Which takes place on October 12th at Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Abilene.
“A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for,” DPAA wrote on its website.
The DPAA reports that some 1594 American servicemen and civilians have yet to be accounted for from the Vietnam War.
Goodwin did not come home in the way that his family would’ve wanted but it does provide a degree of closure for them. RIP Charles Goodwin.