Navy Vietnam pilot buried in Chanhassen
Staff Photo by Art Hager M Is. SfAa..-TRtl&('\N~ - APA,"" \(P, ,If,'$1
A Navy honor detail was on han~riday at Chanhassen Cemetery for the burial of pilot Trent Powers, shot down over North Vietnam in 1965.
Navy Vietnam pilot buried in Chanhassen
By Wendy S. Tai
Staff Writer
home, and maybe tomorrow morn-
ing 1 can sleep in," she said.
American service people unaccount-
ed for from the Vietnam War.
Capt. Trent Powers came home Fri-
day.
Powers, a Navy pilot, was shot down
over what was then North Vietnam
in 1965.
Of them, 43 Minnesotans remain
missing, according to Dale Hanley,
director of Minnesota Won't Forget
POW IMIA, a nonprofit group that
tries to keep the cause of the missing
Americans alive.
Under an evergreen whipping in a
chill wind, his family, colleagues and
other veterans buried him next to his
grandmother in Chanhassen Ceme-
tery.
"My knees were shaking this morn-
ing, but they're steady now," his
mother, Alice Powers, 87, said after
the ceremony that was punctuated by
the volleys of a 21-gun salute.
According to the Pentagon, he proba-
bly died shortly after ground fire hit
his aircraft and forced him to para-
chute behind enemy lines. He was
35.
Hanley was at the cemetery yester-
day, as were about 35 other people,
including Jim Hesselgrave, who wore
a bracelet with Powers' name for 12
years. The first one broke about two
months ago, and he put on a new
one.
Last December, Alice Powers heard
that her missing son's remains had
been identified by an Army laborato-
ry in Hawaii.
"It's over. Now I'm going to go
Powers was among more than 2,400
Yesterday, he handed both to Alice
Powers.
"I don't show up for these much,"
Hesselgrave said after the ceremony.
"After 12 years, 1 had to come and
say goodbye to someone 1 didn't real-
ly know." .
The burial marked the end of an
ordeal for the Powers family. But for
the families of others who are still
missing, the wait goes on.
Hesselgrave pushed up his right
sleeve, showing a bracelet and said,
"I already got a new one on. It's not
over." It read: Lt. Co\. William
Cook, 4-18-68.