CAMP H.M. SMITH, HAWAII -- Admiral Dennis C. Blair, Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command, will speak at a ceremony honoring the seven U.S. servicemen who died in a helicopter crash Saturday in Vietnam. 1:30 p.m. Friday at Hickam Air Force Base.

The U.S. servicemen and nine Vietnamese were onboard a Vietnamese MI-17 helicopter when it crashed Saturday, April 7, in Quang Bing Province, Vietnam, which is 250 miles south of Hanoi. They were conducting operations in preparation for the 65^th Joint Field Activity. Joint Field Activites are month-long operations held four times a year in Vietnam to recover and return the remains of American servicemen still unaccounted for as a result of the Vietnam War. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Information about the U.S. government’s worldwide full-accounting mission can be found on the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Affairs Office website at www.dtic.mil/dpmo.

Note: Media interested in covering the repatriation ceremony should contact 2^nd Lt. Christopher Anderson at the Hickam Public Affairs Office at 449-6368. News media wishing to attend the ceremony at Hickam AFB must be at the Hickam front gate no later than 12:15 p.m. Apr. 13. Hickam Public Affairs will escort news media to the ceremony location.