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Aircrew flight equipment tech brings servicemembers home

By Senior Airman Marissa Tucker, 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs / Published June 23, 2011

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By SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C -- Members of the U.S. Armed Forces make many sacrifices for their country, promising to put their lives on the line for freedom; in return, the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) promises them one thing: They will bring them home.

The sole mission of the JPAC is to recover and identify every American lost in past U.S. conflicts. To do this, Airmen from various career fields volunteer to be part of recovery teams composed of archeologists, pilots, air crew flight equipment technicians and other subject matter experts who go to the last known location of a missing servicemember and scour the grounds to bring them home. Tech. Sgt. Michelle Mattison, 4th Operations Support Squadron NCOIC of aircrew flight equipment recently took part in a mission to recover a servicemember from an aircraft crash that occurred more than 30 years ago.

"I was part of a recovery team that had about 14 people from career fields like life support, anthropology and interpreters," Sergeant Mattison said. "They compose these teams based on the type of scenario being recovered at the time."

Sergeant Mattison's mission began at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, where she met her team she would travel to Binh Dinh, Vietnam with for a month to the last known location of a U.S. servicemember who fought in the Vietnam War. After learning the purpose of the mission and determining how they would carry it out, the team started with basic necessities in tow.

"We were given a couple of tuff boxes that we had to fill with everything we would need for the trip, including our food," Sergeant Mattison said. "We also lived out of tents and set up our own campsite, so to speak. It was not an easy trip, but the purpose was well worth it."

Each day, the group searched through areas designated by archaeologists and verified by local Vietnamese villagers who knew about the crash. The villagers also helped the recovery team sift through thousands of square feet of land to uncover the smallest particles of an aircraft, life support equipment and skeletal pieces.

Members of the recovery team used their occupational expertise to identify objects found during the search. They also brought other skills to the team, including a medic who built a "bathroom" and shower area used for the duration of the search.

Working together in all aspects is a must for all members of a recovery team, said Tech. Sgt. Alvin Edmunds, former 4th OSS aircrew flight equipment technician who took part in a similar mission to Laos, Vietnam, last year.

"We all just worked together to accomplish the goal," Sergeant Edmunds said. "During that time of the year, it is really hot and we sometimes worked 12- or 13-hour days. We just relied on each other to get the job done."

In the end, Sergeant Mattison's team recovered a gun and a dog tag to send back to the main lab at Hickam AFB for further identification. She said at times the process was very tedious and days were quite long, but the gratification from finding an item of a servicemember was enough to make her want to volunteer again.

"Just to prove someone, a servicememember, was here is an amazing thing," she said. "It's a part of the job we do not get to see that often and it makes you really appreciate what you do."
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