REMARKS:

CACCF/CRASH/AIRCREW/QUANG TRI/4 YRS UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

Synopsis:

Major Morrill was the pilot of one of two Marine Corps F4B Phantoms of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA314, which left Chu Lai, South Vietnam on a close air support mission of Marine Corps ground troops in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam.  Major Morrill's aircraft was observed to pull off target on the fourth pass and then contact was lost.  The pilot of the lead aircraft observed a ground explosion about one and one half miles from the target. No parachutes were seen.  Major Morrill and his Radar Int ercept Officer Lieutenant Maxim C. Parker were listed as missing in action. In August of 1967, the wreckage of Major Morrill's aircraft was located by Marine Corps engineers building a road in the are of Dong Ha village.  The aircraft was identified by tail and bureau numbers. A search of the crash found Lt. Parker's dog tags and two sets of human  remains, which were later identified as Marine ground troops killed in the battle.

Major Morrill and Lieutenant Parker's status was changed to killed in action/body not recovered. Major Morrill was posthumously promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and awarded the Air Medal and Purple Heart. In 1993, the site was excavated by a joint  Vietnamese/American task force. Major Morrill's wedding ring and human remains were recovered at the site. Major Morrill's wedding ring was subsequently identified and returned to his family.  No identification of the remains has been made. Lieutenant Colonel Morrill was a 1952 graduate of Ole Miss.  He attended the Naval Post Graduate School and obtained a Masters Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton University.  He was a test pilot and was selected from, three thousand initial candidates, as one of the final thirty candidates for the Apollo Astronaut Program. Brother: Lt. Col. Merwin L. Morrill, USAF.  San Carlos, CA. (KIA 08-21-67 in NV).

According to the Department of Defense, the number of Americans missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War is 1,973. On June 20th, the League was informed that six Americans were recently accounted for. David W. Morrill and Maxim C. Parker, both USMC, were jointly recovered in South Vietnam June 9, 1993. The remains of Victor J. Apodaca, Jr., USAF, were repatriated April 27, 1989. The November 14, 1991 joint recovery of the remains of Harry A. Amesbury, Jr., USAF, brought an accepted identification. And, the remains of Harley B. Pyles, USAF, and Winfield Wade Sisson, USMC, were jointly recovered in South Vietnam on April 8, 1993. The accounting for these six US personnel brings the number now missing and unaccounted for in Vietnam to 1,481, with 417 in Laos, 67 in Cambodia and 8 in the territorial waters of the PRC.  Over 90% of the 1,973 Americans still missing from the Vietnam War were lost in areas under Vietnam's wartime control.