Butler, James Edward
Army Chief warrant officer 3
James Edward Butler, age 23, from Buies Creek, North Carolina, Harnett county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, March 20, 1970
Source: National Archives
Butler, James Edward
Connell, Charles Anthony
Army Sergeant
Charles Anthony Connell, age 19, from Mango, Florida, Hillsborough county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, March 20, 1970
Death details: On September 4, 1997, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Chief Warrant Officer 3 James Edward Butler, missing from the Vietnam War. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Butler joined the U.S. Army from North Carolina and was a member of the 199th Aviation Company. On March 20, 1970, he was an observer aboard an O-1G Bird Dog on a visual reconnaissance mission over Vinh Binh Province, Vietnam. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Butler’s aircraft went down for unknown reasons at some point during the mission, and he was killed in the incident. Search and rescue efforts were launched when the Bird Dog failed to return, but were unsuccessful. In April 1989, the Vietnamese government returned a set of unidentified remains to U.S. custody. In 1997, modern advances in forensic techniques allowed for the returned remains to be identified as those of CW3 Butler.
Cemetery: Turkey Creek
Source: National Archives, Tampa Tribune (1970), Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency