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Mpls Star Tribune Article 2-10-1988Star Tribune Wednesday February 10/1988. A--'f�er 23 years, woman can bury her pilot son By Chuck Haga Staff Writer Even though she held out little hope that her son was alive, Alice Powers said fl ve years ago that she still want- ed hili home. N we have an individual at home, we bury them and they're at rest," she said then. Sine can bury her soon now. The Pentagon announced Tuesday that the remains of Capt. Trent R. Powers, a Navy pilot from Minne- apolis who was shot down over North Vietnam at age 3 5 and de- clared missing in 1965, have been identified by an Army laboratory in Hawaii, Alice Powers was told in fate Decem- ber. "It came as a relief," she said yesterday. "We know that it hap- pened, that he died. We won't be �Ir ++lyys ��44j Continued _fram Tpea.Q, RID wondering all the time, and that means a great deal to the entire fam- ily. "I really didn't see how it could be otherwise. And I would rather have news that he was gone than that he had been held prisoner and tor- tured." be sent from Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii to Travis Air Force 113ase in California tomorrow morning after a ceremony with full military honors. Alice Powers said her grandson, Trent Jr., who lives in Pennsylvania, is planning a funeral service, which will be in Minnesota in April. The remains of Powers and five oth- She spent much of yesterday giving er U.S. military officers who had interviews, looking through newspa- been listed as misting in action will per clippings and remembering her to leave Vietnam shortly before he was lost, she said. "He asked to re- main because he thought he could do some good. He knew the area very ,V Iell." According to the Pentagon, Powers was flying about 35 miles northeast of Hanoi when his plane apparently was struck by ground fare. Powers was leading eight U.S. aircraft on a combat assault mission over a valley where North Vietnamese Army units were deployed. Where was 6'intense antiaircraft artil- lery fire," according to the govern- ment account. Someone in one of the other U.S. planes saw a flash, and then saw Powers parachuting from his plane. He waved. "to indicate he was CCK," the official report stated, and an emergency radio beeper was heard for 30 seconds during his de- scent. Alice Powers sent packages and let- ters to her son, but they were re- turned. At the end of the war, when U.S. prisoners were released, Trent Powers was not among them. 6 R real- ized there was a great likelihood he w®uid not be coming home,9' she said. Dowers and four of the others were in the same group of remains, repatri- ated to the United States by the Viet - namese government last November. The remains of the sixth had been repatriated in August 1985, but ef- forts to identify hili had been unsuc- cessful until recently, the Pentagon said.. 'the Pentagon identified the other missing men-, all aviators, as: D Air Force Col. Franklin A. Caras, Spanish Fork, Utah, lost over North Vietnam on April 28, 1967. Air Force Col, Oscar M. Dardeau jr., Ville Platte, La., lost over North Vietnam on Nov. 18, 1967. son. "It's been quite a heavy day. But novo we can put it to rest. We will contin- ue to think about him, but it will be in a different way. It won't be with the anxiety. I'll think of him now as wonderful son, who was doing jus'i exactly what he wanted.") Trent Powers had passed up a chane(, Fowem continued on page 4I Air Force Lt. Colo Edward W. Lehnhoff, Fort Scott, Kan., lost over North Vietnam on Nov. 18, 1967. ■ Navy Cmdr. Edwin B. Tucker, Baldwinville, Mass., lost over North Vietnam on April 24, 1967. ■ Navy Lt. Clemie McKinney, Cleveland, lost over South Vietnam on April 14, 1972. The Pentagon said McKinney's re- mains were among those recovered more than two years ago. His identi- fication completes the work on that set of 26 remains repatriated to the United States on Aug. 14, 1985, the Pentagon said. The Pentagon state- ment gave no indication of how or where the remains were recovered. All six were identified by the U.S. Army's Central Identification Lab- oratory in Honolulu. With the latest identifications, there are 2,404 Amer- icans still listed as missing in Indo- china as a result of the Vietnam War, 19767 of whom are listed as missing in either North or South Vietnam, the Pentagon said. The remains of 152 Americans have been repatriated to the United States and subsequently identified by the laboratory since the end of the war. "The U.S. government appreciateE the cooperation of the Socialist Re- public of Vietnam i:hat resulted in thc- recovery and return of these rernaim and hopes it is representative of con, tinued cooperation to resolve thi, longstanding humanitarian issue,' the Pentagon said in a statement.