Never forgotten: Speaker recounts finding brother's resting place

Dr. Dennis Confer speaks to those gathered for a Memorial Day ceremony in the Culbertson Cemetery in Culbertson, Nebraska. Dr. Confer remembered his brother, U.S. Navy Lt. Mike Confer, who, in 1966, piloted a Skyhawk used to fly missions throughout Southeast Asia, including close air support to American troops in South Vietnam. Lt. Mike Confer was killed on Oct. 10, 1966, when his plane was struck by a surface-to-air missile and exploded. Dr. Dennis confer lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is the chief medical officer of the National Marrow Donor Program. He and Mike have two brothers, Rod Confer, who lives in Lincoln, and Kent Confer, who lives in McCook. They are the sons of the late Merle and Dorothy Confer, who raised their family in McCook. Mike Confer is memorialized on a sign, decorated with a veterans' poppy, at McCook High School's Weiland Football Field; he graduated from MHS in 1960.

CULBERTSON, Nebraska -- The messages on Memorial Day in Culbertson, Nebraska, were that the life of a big brother is never forgotten and that the sacrifice made by a good person and a true American service man has the power to impact the world even years later.

Dr. Dennis Confer of St. Paul, Minnesota, told those gathered for a Memorial Day ceremony in the Culbertson Cemetery that finding the final resting place of his brother, Mike, 45 years after his plane crashed off the coast of Vietnam was "truly a staggering experience."

Dr. Confer said it was last year that he was in Hanoi, Vietnam, on a business trip, and discovered that the site of his brother's crash was close. "I was 100 miles from where Mike died," Dr. Confer said.

Courtesy Confer Family

On Oct. 10, 1966, off the USS Coral Sea based in South Vietnam, U.S. Navy Lt. Michael Steele Confer flew a Douglas Skyhawk A-4C on a night road reconnaissance mission that covered a waterway system formed by the Song Hong Ha River, better know as the Red River, south of Hanoi, North Vietnam.

The official Navy report indicates that Confer's jet was likely struck by a surface-to-air missile and exploded, and that he was unable to eject. Confer was listed as "killed in action/body not recovered."

After a four-hour ride from the hotel in Hanoi, Dr. Dennis Confer found a witness to his brother's crash. Through his driver/translator/guide and the guide's family members, Dr. Confer talked to Mr. Tran Huu Khue. "What happened next is unbelievable," Dr. Confer said. "Mr. Khue is in his late 60s. He knew everything about Mike's crash into the Gulf, the only one that crashed near Kien Hanh during the war."

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette

Mr. Khue's story was similar to the Navy's investigation, with one exception. "Where his account differed," Dr. Confer said, "Mr. Khue thought that Mike's plane was disabled on the bombing run and that Mike was trying to ditch in the water, but the plane exploded before he could eject. Mr. Khue thought that Mike was trying to keep the plane from crashing on land, where the villagers lived."

Dr. Confer said that his translator/guide, Cong, explained that the Vietnamese are very respectful of the dead, and that they would have been very afraid to disrespect the remains of the dead. Mr. Khue told Dr. Confer that the villagers gathered Mike's remains and buried them on a sandbar that has since washed away.

The villagers recovered parts of Mike's jet and used the metal to make tools. "Mr. Khue made five carpenter's squares with what he called 'very strong metal' from the jet," Dr. Confer said, displaying a small square to the crowd gathered for the Memorial Day ceremony.

Dr. Confer said that Mr, Khue told him that a war museum wanted the square for its displays, "but he gave it to me! I'll keep it forever," Dr. Confer said.

Dr. Confer said that Mr. Khue arranged for a fishing boat to take them out into the Gulf, to the sites where he said Mike was found and further out where the plane landed. Dr. Confer said that Mr. Khue told him, "Reach into the water ... touch your brother's hand."

Dr. Confer, struggling with the memory and tears threatening to fall, said, "It was a truly staggering experience."