Still, investigators pursued potential leads about the wreckage of the two B-52s for decades.
In February of last year. scientists from Project Recover helped the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) continue the search for the B-52s where previous ones had failed. The target of their survey vessel's two week expedition was the seafloor area measuring about eight square miles.
In the past, such expeditions would have relied on divers or "fairly rudimentary" sonar. But this time they were using three 6-foot-long robots with the ability to scan up to 229 feet on either side and produce high-resolution imagery of the seafloor.
The wreckage of one of the B-52s came into view. Then the team saw human remains on the seabed. Before recovering them, the crew obtained permission from military officials in Vietnam and the United States by satellite phone.
About 24 hours later, the remains were brought to the surface. A lab in Hawaii eventually identified them as belonging to Major Paul A. Avolese.
The remains of two other men who were on the same B-52 have yet to be found. A full excavation to cover them would typically be the next step in such a case, and the DPAA would make that decision.
In September, the Pentagon said a ceremonial pin would be placed next to his name at the Courts of the Missing, in the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu to indicate that he had been found.
