The Closing Chapter of a Sad Story
Sometimes a story is only as good as its ending, But some stories have no immediate ending, These are usuallystories of pain. For the people concerned, these stories - and the pain - seem to continue indefinitely.
Last November, Santa Barbara resident Bruce Giffin told us a heartfelt story about his favorite uncle. He told us how on a sunny day some 35 years ago he said what would turn out to be his last goodbye to his Uncle Ross.
In April of 1963, Lt Col. Ross Fobair, a brave and intelligent, young man of 30, would board his Phantom F4 fighter and along others from his squadron fly Florida to Hawaii. From there they would join hundreds of others involved in a growing military conflict in Vietnam.
A brief stop at George Air Force Base in the San Fernando Valley would be the last time Giffin and Fobair would spend time together. Four months later, Fobair's family would receive the news that his plane had been shot down over enemy territory.
After 55 successful missions, and on what was supposed to be his last, Lt Col. Fobair was reported missing in action. The uncertainty of his uncle's fate haunted Giffin for many years. Was he captured? Did he die in the crash? Fobair's co- pilot Col. Richard P. Keirn, had ejected from the plane only to be captured. He spent the next eight years as a POW.
The Los Angeles Times reported in April that Giffin took time off from his Santa Barbara based contractor business in 1997 to travel to Vietnam. There he worked with a task force set up to investigate the nearly 2,000 cases of American military personnel still unaccounted for.
According to the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting Web site, since its inception in 1992 the task force has repatriated more than 400 remains. Excavation sites relating to 200 more cases have been identified.
During his month in Vietnam, Giffin - along with site investigators - found a 1964 American penny and a tooth near Fobairs crash site. Artifacts recovered were first sent to the Air Force Life Science laboratory at Randolph AFB in Texas, and later shipped to the Army's Central Identification Laboratory at Hickam AFB in Hawaii.
Fobair earned the Purple Heart Air Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal and Air Force Outstanding Unit Award among other awards and commendations.
The final chapter to this sad story began earlier this year when Fobairs remains were positively identified through forensic dentistry. This chapter will come to a close today at a memorial service in Elings Park. Sometime after 3 p.m. Fobair will receive full military honors and pilots from Edwards Air Force Base will conduct a special flyover.
Take a moment if you happen to see these magnificent flying machines to think of a young man with kind eyes and a bright smile. One of America's true and native sons who gave his life for the country he loved. And give thanks that men (and women) like Fobair have made it possible to live our lives in freedom.
Rest well, Lt. Col. Ross Fobair.
Andrew Schuette is associate editorial page editor of the News-Press.
Write to him at P.O.' Box 1359, Santa Barbara, CA;
e-mail: aschuette@newspress-com
Santa Barbara News-Press Sunday, April 29, 2001
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