Capt. Brian Danielson This is Me

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1. 1. www.aiipowmia.com

   www.aiipowmia.com/inter27/in27 - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/27/2007   Last Visited: 12/8/2007

   Brian Danielson, Ben's son, was 18-months old when he lost his father. He is now a pilot in the U.S. Navy. Lieutenant Commander Brian Danielson recently became aware that the pistol his father was carrying the day he was shot down had been found in Vietnam. He requested, and received permission, to go to SoutheastÊ Asia and participate in a search for remains, which was conducted by the Joint POW/MIA Command.
   
   Soon afterwards, Brian planned out his father's final flight: from a DNA lab in Hawaii to their family's home town of Kenyon, Minnesota.Ê Brian also planned out the memorial that was held on Father's Day, and decided to invite all those, like Jim Corcoran,Ê who had risked their own lives in the massive rescue effort.Ê
   ...
   In the search for Danielson and Bergeron, Corcoran's chopper sustained 300 bullet holes.

2. 2. Duluth News Tribune | 04/16/2006 | Minnesota man on mission to find MIA father in Laos

   www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/dul - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/16/2006   Last Visited: 4/16/2006

   MINNEAPOLIS - In the bamboo jungles of Laos, Brian Danielson is on his hands and knees digging and sifting the ground with a team from the U.S. military's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. Danielson, of Kenyon, Minn., is a military man himself, an active Navy pilot who flew missions over Iraq in the late 1990s.
   
   He is on special duty this weekend, searching a point along the Ho Chi Minh Trail for the remains of an Air Force pilot shot down on Dec. 5, 1969.
   ...
   Mark Brown of the military's Joint POW/MIA Command in Hawaii, Brian Danielson is the first active-duty service member to participate in a formal search for his MIA father.
   ...
   "My father was someone who touched many lives, and a great side effect to his 'fame' as an MIA has been for me to meet those people he touched, as well as those who touched him," Brian Danielson wrote in a recent e-mail from Laos.
   
   "There has been no textbook for being a family member" of someone listed as missing in action, he said. "It has been a struggle for me to know what I should be doing, and how I should comport myself."
   
   Rep. Steve Sviggum, the speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, represents Kenyon. He was in high school when Ben Danielson was shot down, and he knows the family well.
   
   "Brian is one of those young men you'd love to have as your own son," he said. "He's proud of his father and he's proud of his country."
   
   With his weapons officer, 1st Lt. Woody Bergeron, Capt. Danielson was on a mission to intercept North Vietnamese troops moving along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
   
   Another pilot saw Danielson's plane pitch violently, according to military reports. Two parachutes opened, and Danielson and Bergeron landed on opposite sides of a river.
   
   Rescue teams made six attempts that day to retrieve them but were driven back by enemy fire; one helicopter crew member was killed.
   
   At first, the downed pilots could see each other across the river and communicated by radio. But the next morning, Bergeron heard shouts and gunfire from where Danielson was hiding, then nothing.
   
   After 51 hours, Bergeron was rescued. Danielson was listed as missing in action until July 19, 1976, when the Air Force said he was presumed dead.
   
   In 1991, Danielson's service pistol turned up in a museum in Vietnam. In 2003, a piece of bone and a set of dog tags were brought to U.S. authorities, and DNA tests indicated that the bone could be Danielson's.
   
   Just last year, a former North Vietnamese anti-aircraft artillery officer was brought to the site. He told of seeing an American pilot "on the ground," indicating that Danielson was killed there.
   
   Brian was raised in Kenyon, where his mother, Mary, occasionally came to school to talk about his father, the war and sacrifice. He graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., where he -- like his father -- played football.
   ...
   In 1990, Brian and his mother established an annual award for "inspiration and leadership," and Mary -- who eventually remarried -- often attends the football awards banquet to present it, Porter said.
   ...
   After his deployments in the Middle East, Brian became a Navy flight instructor. Since 2002 he has been a squadron operations officer at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C. He and his wife, Pam, have three children.
   
   In "the Rambo years," Danielson said, "there was some false hope that my dad would walk out of the jungle.
   ...
   "But since he was the last person to see my dad alive, it was a unique experience," Danielson said, "and very helpful."

3. 3. youcdnew.megafins.com

   youcdnew.megafins.com/2008/04/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/7/2008   Last Visited: 5/25/2008

   Brian Danielson, now a pilot in the U. Religion prof examines missteps among different faiths.