<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of <i>Stars and Stripes</i> at:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.stripes.com/news/us/remains-of-illinois-soldier-missing-since-1969-coming-home-1.387845">http://www.stripes.com/news/us/remains-of-illinois-soldier-missing-since-1969-coming-home-1.387845</a></div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-size: 28px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Remains of Illinois soldier, missing since 1969, coming home</h1><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">ALBION, Ill. — The remains of an airman listed as "missing in action" during the Vietnam War have been recovered.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Officials with the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed the remains of Pfc. Kenneth Leroy Cunningham of Ellery, Illinois.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He had been missing since Oct. 3, 1969. He was 21 at the time.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cunningham's remains will be flown back to the United States later this month, arriving at the airport in Louisville, Kentucky on Jan 19. His remains will be escorted back to Albion, Illinois for funeral services and burial at the Little Prairie Christian Church on Jan. 21.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Oct. 3, 1969, First Lt. Paul L. Graffe, a pilot, and Cunningham departed from Phu Hiep, South Vietnam during the early evening for a nighttime surveillance mission of targets located in the tri-border area of Cambodia, Laos and South Vietnam.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The aircraft, an OV1C Mohawk plane, was equipped with surveillance equipment, but was not armed. The aircraft failed to return at its scheduled time. Two days later, search-and-rescue aircraft located the wreckage of an aircraft atop a 7,000-foot peak in a mountain range north of the city of Kontum. The wreckage was positively identified as that of Graffe and Cunningham's aircraft. Efforts were made to insert a ground team at the site on Oct. 5 and Oct. 6, but bad weather prevented the mission.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A later effort was scrubbed for fear that enemy troops had a set a trap at the crash site.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dave Cunningham of Fairfield, Illinois was 12 when his brother's plane went missing.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"The news is sort of bittersweet," Dave said. "We now know that he died at the crash site and not in a concentration camp. What we still don't know is if his plane was shot down. It was very foggy and rainy the night his plane disappeared. They may have just flown into the side of the mountain. What we know now closes a chapter, but not the book."</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"I still remember the last thing that Kenneth asked me to do at the airport before he left for Vietnam," Dave said. "He asked me to take care of mom and dad."</span></p><div class="ndn_embed ndn_embedding ndn_embedContainer ndn-widget-embed-2 ndn_embedded" id="ndn-video-inside-story" data-config-distributor-id="92012" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: auto; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 1;"></div><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cunningham's father, Arthur Neal Cunningham died in 1988. His mother, Margaret Cunningham, died in April of last year at the age of 96.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Mom never gave up hope," Dave said. "Growing up, we lived in a very small house and slept in the same bed. We had a lot of nighttime talks. He was nine years older than me, so I remember him taking me places when he was home on leave. He took me places like a big brother would – places I normally wouldn't have been able to go."</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Survivors include two brothers, Dave Cunningham of Fairfield and Arthur Cunningham, Jr. of Jasonville, Indiana, and a sister, Ruth Barnett of Samsville, Illinois.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;">--------------------</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;">Private First Class Kenneth Cunningham (Ellery, Illinois)</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/POW_MIA/PFC_Kenneth_Cunningham_Ellery_IL.jpg">http://www.moscowcares.com/POW_MIA/PFC_Kenneth_Cunningham_Ellery_IL.jpg</a></p></div><div>--------------------------------<br><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></body></html>