This is a cenotaph memorial.
On February 20, 1967, Major Goodman and Navy Lt. Gary L. Thornton took off in their F-4B Phantom from the USS Enterprise for a bombing mission against a railroad yard in Thanh Hoa Province, North Vietnam. They were struck by enemy antiaircraft fire and their plane exploded. Thornton was able to eject at just 250 feet altitude, but Goodman did not escape. Thornton survived and was held captive until his release in 1973. Search and rescue attempts were curtailed because of heavy anti-aircraft and automatic weapons fire in the area of the crash. Between October 1993 and March 2008, joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) investigated the crash site twice and conducted two excavations, recovering human remains and pilot equipment. The aircraft debris recovered correlates with the type of aircraft the men were flying. Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA – which matched two of his maternal relatives -- in the identification of Goodman's remains. Major Goodman's remains were returned to his family in November 2009. His family plans to scatter his ashes in Alaska along with those of his wife, June. She died in November 2009, a week before the family learned that his remains had been positively identified.
Russell was the son of Russell Hobart Goodman and Olive May Clemensen Goodman. Major Goodman was married with three children at the time of his death. He is honored on Panel 15E, Row 65 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On February 20, 1967, Major Goodman and Navy Lt. Gary L. Thornton took off in their F-4B Phantom from the USS Enterprise for a bombing mission against a railroad yard in Thanh Hoa Province, North Vietnam. They were struck by enemy antiaircraft fire and their plane exploded. Thornton was able to eject at just 250 feet altitude, but Goodman did not escape. Thornton survived and was held captive until his release in 1973. Search and rescue attempts were curtailed because of heavy anti-aircraft and automatic weapons fire in the area of the crash. Between October 1993 and March 2008, joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) investigated the crash site twice and conducted two excavations, recovering human remains and pilot equipment. The aircraft debris recovered correlates with the type of aircraft the men were flying. Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA – which matched two of his maternal relatives -- in the identification of Goodman's remains. Major Goodman's remains were returned to his family in November 2009. His family plans to scatter his ashes in Alaska along with those of his wife, June. She died in November 2009, a week before the family learned that his remains had been positively identified.
Russell was the son of Russell Hobart Goodman and Olive May Clemensen Goodman. Major Goodman was married with three children at the time of his death. He is honored on Panel 15E, Row 65 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
This is a cenotaph memorial.
On February 20, 1967, Major Goodman and Navy Lt. Gary L. Thornton took off in their F-4B Phantom from the USS Enterprise for a bombing mission against a railroad yard in Thanh Hoa Province, North Vietnam. They were struck by enemy antiaircraft fire and their plane exploded. Thornton was able to eject at just 250 feet altitude, but Goodman did not escape. Thornton survived and was held captive until his release in 1973. Search and rescue attempts were curtailed because of heavy anti-aircraft and automatic weapons fire in the area of the crash. Between October 1993 and March 2008, joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) investigated the crash site twice and conducted two excavations, recovering human remains and pilot equipment. The aircraft debris recovered correlates with the type of aircraft the men were flying. Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA – which matched two of his maternal relatives -- in the identification of Goodman's remains. Major Goodman's remains were returned to his family in November 2009. His family plans to scatter his ashes in Alaska along with those of his wife, June. She died in November 2009, a week before the family learned that his remains had been positively identified.
Russell was the son of Russell Hobart Goodman and Olive May Clemensen Goodman. Major Goodman was married with three children at the time of his death. He is honored on Panel 15E, Row 65 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On February 20, 1967, Major Goodman and Navy Lt. Gary L. Thornton took off in their F-4B Phantom from the USS Enterprise for a bombing mission against a railroad yard in Thanh Hoa Province, North Vietnam. They were struck by enemy antiaircraft fire and their plane exploded. Thornton was able to eject at just 250 feet altitude, but Goodman did not escape. Thornton survived and was held captive until his release in 1973. Search and rescue attempts were curtailed because of heavy anti-aircraft and automatic weapons fire in the area of the crash. Between October 1993 and March 2008, joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) investigated the crash site twice and conducted two excavations, recovering human remains and pilot equipment. The aircraft debris recovered correlates with the type of aircraft the men were flying. Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA – which matched two of his maternal relatives -- in the identification of Goodman's remains. Major Goodman's remains were returned to his family in November 2009. His family plans to scatter his ashes in Alaska along with those of his wife, June. She died in November 2009, a week before the family learned that his remains had been positively identified.
Russell was the son of Russell Hobart Goodman and Olive May Clemensen Goodman. Major Goodman was married with three children at the time of his death. He is honored on Panel 15E, Row 65 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
