Veterans and relatives of Australia's last two servicemen listed as missing in action in the Vietnam War gathered Sunday to send their remains home, 39 years after their plane crashed in remote jungle.
"This ceremony marks the end of an era," Mike Kelly, Australia's minister for defence support, said to about 100 guests gathered on the tarmac of Hanoi's Noi Bai airport for the emotional ceremony.
Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver, both 24, were the last Australian troops to be accounted for after being reported as missing in action during the war.
An Australian search team found Herbert's and Carver's remains in a jungle area of central Vietnam's Quang Nam province in July, after earlier locating wreckage of the plane.
Herbert's younger brother Shane, and Carver's sister-in-law Susanna Carver travelled from Australia for the ceremony where they sat before two shiny wooden coffins, each draped in an Australian flag with an airman's cap resting on top.
On a table nearby stood two black and white portraits of the men: Herbert, in his flying suit, and the moustachioed Carver with his helmet tucked under one arm.
Medals rested on a black pillow next to each photo.
Australian ambassador Allaster Cox said he was "particularly pleased" that Vietnamese officials were also at the ceremony which he said "will further advance the process of reconciliation."
Kelly thanked Vietnam for its "generosity and assistance" offered to the searchers.
Herbert, the pilot, and Carver, his navigator, had completed a night mission on November 3, 1970 and were heading home when their aircraft, known as Magpie Nine One, inexplicably vanished, Kelly said.
"The mission was expected to be uneventful," he said.
Veteran John Bird, 61, told AFP that he was supposed to fly on the same Canberra bomber as Herbert and Carver but at the last minute was told he was not needed.
"I said, 'I'll see you in the morning.' Of course, they never came back."
Another veteran, Alan Curr, 60, told AFP that comrades of the missing pair never thought the airplane would be found.
"So to know that we are now taking Herbie and Bob back to Australia, it's very moving for us and I think it probably does provide a bit of closure", said Curr, who described Herbert as a "great mate".
Air Marshal Mark Binskin asked for an investigation to find the bomber after he was appointed air force chief, Wing Commander Michael Warby told reporters.
Warby said he led a team of 12 Australians who found the remains after roughly eight days of excavation in July.
An investigation had begun last October and involved testimony from local witnesses as well as modelling by defence scientists, who accurately predicted the general area where the debris was found, Warby said.
Australia and New Zealand fought alongside the United States in Vietnam, losing more than 500 soldiers. At least three million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans also died by the time the war ended on April 30, 1975.
But Australia became one of the first Western countries to establish diplomatic ties with Hanoi in 1973, and has become a substantial aid donor and business partner of the communist nation.
Bird, Curr and two other veterans -- their casual shirts decorated with medals -- joined current members of Herbert's and Carver's squadron to slowly march the coffins onto a Royal Australian Air Force Hercules that would take them home.
Their portraits and the black pillows flew home with them after Herbert's brother spent minutes kneeling inside the plane with his head bowed over the coffin.
He emerged to shake the hand of Bird, who quickly turned away, his face red, in tears.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Australia's last Vietnam War missing sent home
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