Soldier Accounted For From Vietnam War (Finger, S.)
WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today
that U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Sanford I. Finger, 29, of Miami Beach,
Florida, killed during the Vietnam War, was accounted for Aug. 23, 2022.
In
October 1971, Finger was assigned to the U.S. Army Element Vietnam,
Army Air Force Regional Exchange, Pacific Exchange (Manager of the An
Son Post Exchange), U.S. Army Headquarters Area Command. On Oct. 26,
Finger was lost when the CH-47B Chinook helicopter on which he was a
passenger went down over water in bad weather while flying from Tuy Hoa
to Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam. Remains of four of the 10 Soldiers on board
were recovered during search and rescue operations following the crash,
but Finger was not accounted for.
An unsuccessful recovery
attempt was made in 1974 when divers from the Joint Casualty Resolution
Center dove on what was believed to be the crash site. A number of
investigation and recovery efforts took place between 1994 and 2021 with
a June 2021 recovery mission finding possible human remains and
material evidence.
To identify Finger’s remains, scientists from
DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as material and
circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces
Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and autosomal DNA
(auSTR) analysis.
Finger’s name is recorded on the National
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the American Battle
Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial
Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with others who are
unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. A rosette will be placed next to
his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Finger was buried June 16, 2023, in Arlington National Cemetery. r.
https://www.dpaa.mil/