The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Air Force Sgt. David S. Price, 26, of Centralia, Washington, who was killed during the Vietnam War, was accounted for June 21, 2024.
In 1968, Price and 18 other men were assigned to Lima Site 85, a tactical air navigation radar site on a remote, 5,600-foot mountain peak known as Phou Pha Thi in Houaphan Province, Laos. In the early morning of March 11, the site was overrun by Vietnamese commandos, causing the Americans to seek safety on a narrow ledge of the steep mountain.
A few hours later, under the protective cover of A-1 Skyraider aircraft, U.S. helicopters were able to rescue eight of the men. Price and 10 other Americans were killed in action and unable to be recovered.
In 1994, a joint U.S. - Lao People’s Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R.) recovery operation, led by DPAA’s predecessor Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), took place near the top of Phou Pha Thi with negative results. A second recovery operation, in 2003, resulted in the discovery of remains which were subsequently identified as one of the missing U.S. servicemen, Tech Sgt. Patrick L. Shannon. Since that time, JPAC evaluated the feasibility of conducting recoveries on Phou Pha Thi but logistics and safety concerns precluded further attempts.
From 1994 to 2009, in cooperation with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) and L.P.D.R., teams pursued multiple leads from dozens of witnesses interviewed, including those involved with the attack. In 2003 a joint team recovered remains during site investigation work along the western slopes of Phou Pha Thi. The remains were scientifically identified as one of the 11 missing Airmen from this incident. In 2005, a Laotian citizen provided U.S. officials an identification card belonging to another missing servicemember, and human remains purportedly found at the base of Phou Pha Thi.
In 2023, DPAA personnel and members from partner organizations discovered unexploded ordnance, incident-related materials, possible material evidence, and possible osseus remains from the research site. Believing a possible match to Price, the remains were transferred to the DPAA laboratory for analysis and identification.
To identify Price’s remains, scientists from DPAA used circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Today, Price is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, and on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., (Panel 44E, Line 19). A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Price will be buried in Centralia, Washington, on August 30, 2024.
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