Powell, a 1965 Texas Christian University graduate who joined Air Force ROTC on campus, was 25 when he went missing. His family held a memorial after the Air Force declared him killed in action in 1973. His parents died before the first of his remains were returned in 1988. Years after that burial, DNA testing identified additional remains, and the family gathered to bury him again.
“Nobody should have to bury the same person twice after already having a memorial service,” his nephew Bryan Powell told TCU Magazine.
The magazine’s winter cover story draws on official accounts from the U.S. Government and eyewitnesses in Vietnam, family interviews, Powell’s wartime diary and photographs. Among the items his family kept were small reel-to-reel tapes they had recorded to send him news from home.
Today, TCU partners with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to help investigate other cases. TCU historian and Army veteran Matt Kotowski searches military records, photographs and other archival materials for clues about what happened to service members who remain missing
Read the full TCU Magazine story
A Hero’s Return
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