Forty years after he was shot down and killed in Vietnam, the remains of Army Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Lyn McKain will finally be laid to rest.
On May 23, Army officials came to the Aurora home of Gib McKain, the brother of the fallen pilot, to inform him that DNA testing positively identified the remains.
“I was stunned,” said Gib McKain, a 61-year-old retired federal worker. “I never thought they’d find him.”
Bobby McKain was shot down while flying his Cobra helicopter on May 5, 1968. Military reports indicate that the aircraft crashed on the border of Vietnam and Laos in Quang Tri province. Witnesses said the helicopter burst into flames and that no signs of life could be seen.
Three months later, McKain was pronounced “killed in action, body not recovered.”
At the time, Gib McKain was also in the Army at Fort Monmouth, N.J. A letter from a friend said simply, “Sorry to hear about your brother.” He immediately called his mother, who told him what happened. His mother hadn’t previously passed on the news because she worried he might go AWOL and come home.
Over the years, Gib McKain held only a slight hope that his brother might still be alive.
“I’ve seen movies, like ‘Deer Hunter,’ about what POWs went through. Given that, I just thought of him as being dead,” he said.
After the Vietnam War ended, attempts to recover the remains of American personnel began.
In June 1985, a U.S. citizen with ties to Southeast Asia turned over five bundles of remains, according to a military report given to Gib McKain. Four of the bundles were identified and the fifth was thought to be that of another serviceman, but was not conclusive.
As part of the military forensic investigation, DNA was collected from the families of Americans who were unaccounted for. Gib McKain was sent a DNA kit and returned the swab in 2002.
The years-long investigation resolved that three bones making up the fifth bundle belonged to Bobby McKain. And finally he will be laid to rest.
In 1968, the McKain family buried an empty casket in his memory at the cemetery in Garden City, Kan.
In recognition of his service and sacrifice, McKain’s remains will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 11.
McKain was the recipient of two Air Medals, two Distinguished Flying Crosses and a Purple Heart. He was on his second tour of duty in Vietnam when he was shot down.
Gib McKain is the sole surviving member of the immediate McKain family. His father, Bobby D., died in 1997, while his mother, Lillian, died in 2005.
“He was not forgotten,” Gib McKain said. “After all this time, he was not forgotten.”
According to the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, there are 27 U.S. Unaccounted-For from the Vietnam War whose home of record is the state of Colorado.
Brian Malnes: 303-954-1638 or bmalnes@denverpost.com
