AP News, August 7th, 2007
Fred Dean was dumbfounded when a voice on the other end of the telephone told him that the remains of his stillborn son buried in Libya 44 years ago had been returned to the U.S.
"I asked him if he was for real. I didn't believe him," the 67-year-old retired Air Force airman said Monday.
Air Force officials returned from the north African country in June with the remains of 72 Americans, which had been buried there anywhere from 30 to 50 years. They are believed to be family members of airmen once stationed at Wheelus Air Base outside Tripoli or elsewhere in the region.
Wheelus served as a base for B-52 bombers from 1958 to 1972. Airmen stationed there were permitted to have their families with them.
Mark Blair, chief of Air Force mortuary affairs, said the Italian military offered American airmen free plots and markers at the cemetery. At that time, there was no entitlement for U.S. airmen to have deceased family members flown home.
When plans were recently made to renovate and reduce the size of the cemetery, Blair was sent to Libya to oversee the two-week project to return the remains. The Air Force said Libya cooperated with the effort.
Records showed there were about 50 Americans buried in the cemetery, but Blair and his team found an additional 16 infants buried in a separate Catholic section. In the end, the remains of 70 infants and two adults were found.
Blair said that if the remains not been unearthed and returned to the United States, it may have been difficult to account for them. So far, the remains of 18 people have been returned to their families. The rest are being held at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Blair and his team took photographs and rubbings of the grave markers to help locate family members in the U.S.
Dean's son, Rodney Earl Dean, was stillborn June 2, 1963, at Wheelus' medical facility and buried at a nearby cemetery operated by the Italian military. Dean's wife, Sheila, had developed complications while pregnant with their second child. Dean was stationed in Italy, but the base there only had a small medical center. She had to be airlifted to the medical center in Libya.
A small, numbered marker was placed near boy's grave in Libya, and the Deans returned to the U.S. in 1964. Dean and his family buried the remains at a family plot in western Ohio on Saturday.
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On the Net:
Air Force Mortuary Affairs: http://www.afsv.af.mil/MA/
