Journey to Lt. Col Morrissey’s crash site in Vietnam.

I am the son of Lt. Col. Robert D. Morrissey, declared MIA (missing in action) on November 7, 1972, after his aircraft failed to return from an aerial combat mission over North Vietnam. My father’s case is still officially unresolved, but we finally know now that he was killed when his plane crashed, and we know the location of the crash site. My wife and I plan to travel to Vietnam next spring to visit my father’s final resting place and to leave some small personal remembrances of my mom. The trip will be expensive and I would be grateful for your support.

Dad was a career Air Force officer who joined the Army Air Corps when he was 17 years old and spent nine years in the enlisted ranks before attending Officer Candidate School and receiving his commission. He served multiple combat tours in Vietnam and was decorated with military honors including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart.

My family suffered from much more than just the absence of my father. We lived far too long with the fear and uncertainty resulting from his MIA status. The change from MIA to Presumed Killed in Action did nothing to diminish those fears and doubt. Like other families of missing servicemen we have also been anguished by the far too frequent failure of the United States government to give accurate and timely information regarding my father’s casualty.

We were not informed in 2011 that the location of my father’s crash had been conclusively determined. I discovered that information by accident in 2015. A fragment of bone, excavated in 1994, had been tested and found to contain the DNA of the other member of Dad’s aircrew. That case was closed and the remains, that one small bone fragment, were returned to his family. The crash site was closed to further excavation after the initial field activity in 1994. There are no plans to re-open it, and it is unlikely that any of my father’s remains will ever be recovered.

There is a memorial stone for my father in Arlington National Cemetery which also marks where my mom is buried. They are together only symbolically. The first goal of this pilgrimage is to reunite my parents in Vietnam as they are in Arlington.

Mom was 39 when dad was shot down. She never remarried. She was 87 when she died. Although we discovered the truth about Dad’s fate in 2015, age-related dementia had already robbed my mother of her capacity to understand and remember that we finally knew what had happened to her beloved “Ace.” My older brother died of cancer in 2021. I am 68 now, active and in good health. Nonetheless, relatively little time remains to me to pay my respects to my father in the place where he rests. I humbly request that you consider a contribution to help make that possible.

Coach fares from Phoenix to Hanoi are currently around $2500 each. Transportation and lodging within Vietnam is relatively inexpensive, but the cost is still considerable. Guides and interpreters must be paid. I plan to document the trip on selected social media platforms and include a precise accounting of the actual costs of the trip. Any amount contributed in excess of costs directly related to travel will be donated to two important organizations in Vietnam.

The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is helping us coordinate our visit with the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO.) Both are helping with logistics and access issues, but neither can provide any financial support. Rather, it is our hope that with this GoFundMe appeal we will be able to raise sufficient funds to make a substantial gift to VUFO and the Vietnam Martyrs Family Support Association as part of our visit. A gift to VUFO would enable them to help us and other families in the future without diminishing their ability to conduct their normal activities.

I particularly hope to take a gift to the Vietnam Martyrs Family Support Association (VMFSA). This organization supports families who, like mine, lost loved ones in the tragic conflict between our countries. More than 1500 US servicemen remain unaccounted for, but many thousands more Vietnamese were lost whose fates are still unknown and whose families continue to suffer.

VMFSA collaborates with agencies like the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and the United States Institute of Peace to collect and repatriate the remains of unidentified combat casualties and support the verification of their identities. In addition, the association has donated over 1,200 gratitude houses, provided families with cash grants, distributed over 60,000 gifts, and provided more than 26,000 family members with free medical check-ups. This trip already means a lot to us personally, but it would be even more meaningful if it included an act of reconciliation benefiting Vietnamese families affected by the war in exactly the same way my family was. Your contribution would make that possible.

My father-in-law was a WW II veteran who worked at the Pearl Harbor shipyard when it was attacked. He served in the navy during the war and then worked at the shipyard until he retired. He and my mother-in-law are buried in the Hawaii State Veteran’s Cemetery. We visit their graves every time we’re in Hawaii, to pray, leave flowers, and pay our due respects. I’ve never had the ability to do that at my father’s final resting place. I expect this to be my only chance.

We buried my mom in Arlington on the 50th anniversary of dad’s loss. As those 50 plus years have passed I’ve often heard the word “sacrifice” applied to that loss, giving me reason and time to contemplate the nature of sacrifice. I know it is a worthwhile sacrifice for us to undertake this journey. I hesitated to make a public appeal for financial support, but convinced myself that it’s ok to invite others to share the sacrifice, and hopefully the reconciliation. Thank you for reading this, and for thinking for a few moments about my parents and their sacrifice.