Sometimes we all need a reminder that not everyone comes home, or has come home...
This story was in the new Orleans Times Picayune today- the pictures say it all....
"Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Patrick Egan's remains, in a brass box emblazoned with the Navy emblem, arrived at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport on Thursday to a hero’s welcome. He was laid to rest with military honors at a Webster, Texas, cemetery On Sunday.
Lt. Cmdr. Egan was on a bombing mission over Laos, in Southeast Asia, when his A1-H Skyraider took on enemy fire and crashed in a field on April 19, 1966. For decades, closure for his family remained elusive, as search teams from the U.S. and Laotian governments scoured the area in an unsuccessful effort to find his remains.
Beginning in 1994, searchers analyzed evidence, ran down leads, surveyed and excavated possible crash sites and interviewed villagers in the area where Egan’s plane went down, Maj. Carrie Parker of the Department of Defense’s POW/Missing Personnel Office said in a news release. A 1996 dig found pieces of the aircraft, but no remains, Wismer said.
In addition to his wife and daughters (Jeri Wismer and Janet Frisard), Lt. Cmdr. Egan is survived by two children from a previous marriage, Michael Patrick Dean and Marla Dean. They were 15 and 12 at the time of his death, Wismer said. "
This story was in the new Orleans Times Picayune today- the pictures say it all....
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| Photo by Craig H. Hartley, Houston Chronicle, via AP |
"Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Patrick Egan's remains, in a brass box emblazoned with the Navy emblem, arrived at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport on Thursday to a hero’s welcome. He was laid to rest with military honors at a Webster, Texas, cemetery On Sunday.
Lt. Cmdr. Egan was on a bombing mission over Laos, in Southeast Asia, when his A1-H Skyraider took on enemy fire and crashed in a field on April 19, 1966. For decades, closure for his family remained elusive, as search teams from the U.S. and Laotian governments scoured the area in an unsuccessful effort to find his remains.
Beginning in 1994, searchers analyzed evidence, ran down leads, surveyed and excavated possible crash sites and interviewed villagers in the area where Egan’s plane went down, Maj. Carrie Parker of the Department of Defense’s POW/Missing Personnel Office said in a news release. A 1996 dig found pieces of the aircraft, but no remains, Wismer said.
Searchers got a break in late 2009, when a Laotian farmer turned over pieces of human bone he said he had found in his field, just yards from the crash site. The bone fragments were eventually sent to a lab in Maryland for DNA testing.
The DNA in the bones matched a sample taken from Egan’s niece, Linda Sanders of La Porte, Texas. In addition to his wife and daughters (Jeri Wismer and Janet Frisard), Lt. Cmdr. Egan is survived by two children from a previous marriage, Michael Patrick Dean and Marla Dean. They were 15 and 12 at the time of his death, Wismer said. "
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| Photo by Craig H. Hartley, Houston Chronicle, via AP |
WELCOME HOME LT CMDR EGAN,
WE HONOR YOU THIS DAY.....
Text and pictures from New Orleans Times Picayune/AP, 071711
Text and pictures from New Orleans Times Picayune/AP, 071711
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