Today we pause to remember SFC Dominick Sansone (Det B-53) and MAJ Woodrow W Vaden (1131st Special Activity Squadron), KIA December 10, 1964.

Today we pause to remember SFC Dominick Sansone (Det B-53) and MAJ Woodrow W Vaden (1131st Special Activity Squadron), KIA December 10, 1964. Major Woodrow W. Vaden was an American member of a Vietnamese flight crew onboard a Fairchild C-123. SFC Dominick Sansone was the other American onboard the aircraft. The two Americans were flying with a group of South Vietnamese airmen on December 10, 1964 when the aircraft was shot down just east of Da Nang, crashing into Monkey Mountain, killing all aboard (32 passengers and 6 air crew).

For reasons now obscure, South Vietnamese authorities took possession of all recovered remains and took them to Saigon for burial in a military cemetery. U.S. authorities believed that the remains of one or both Americans were among those recovered. Sources say several unsuccessful attempts were made by the U.S. to locate and recover them from the cemetery during the war.
Both men were listed Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered. In 1983, Vietnam discovered Sansone's remains and turned them over to the United States. The positive identification of the remains was announced the following year. MAJ Vaden’s remains were recovered on July 18, 1984 and identified on August 11, 2010.