Defense Department forensic scientists identified the remains of CMSgt. Edwin E. Morgan, 38, of Eagle Spring, N.C., an airman who had been missing in action since the Vietnam War, announced the Pentagon. DOD returned Morgan’s remains to his family; his burial with full military honors took place on June 27 in Rockwell, N.C. Morgan was the loadmaster of an AC-47D gunship that departed Da Nang AB, South Vietnam, on March 13, 1966, on an armed reconnaissance mission along the Vietnam-Laos border. The airplane never returned. The Pentagon listed Morgan as missing in action, and a military review board later changed his status to presumed dead. In February 1997, a joint US-Lao team located a crash site in Xekong Province, Laos. Between February 2010 and May 2014, joint US-Lao teams surveyed and excavated the site, recovering human remains, military equipment, and aircraft wreckage that led to Morgan’s identification. (See also UK Daily Mail report.)
The U.S. military conducted a punishing series of airstrikes against Islamic State militants on Dec. 8 following the sudden demise of the ruling Assad regime. U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers, F-15E Strike Eagles, and A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft conducted dozens of airstrikes against Islamic State leaders, fighters, and…