Vietnam-era naval officer to be buried in Arlington

More than 37 years after Navy Lt. Cmdr. J. Forrest G. Trembley failed to return from a bombing mission over North Vietnam, his remains will come home to Arlington National Cemetery, the Pentagon announced yesterday.

A Spokane native and grandson of a Washington Supreme Court judge, Trembley was shot down by Chinese fighters Aug. 21, 1967, after his A-6A aircraft strayed into Chinese airspace. He was 26.

Another A-6A on the mission also was brought down.

Trembley's last radio dispatch indicated Chinese planes were in hot pursuit after a strike against a rail yard near Hanoi.

Later that day, the Chinese government announced that two U.S. planes had been shot down and three of the four crewmen had been killed.

The surviving airman was released in March 1973.

In 1993, Chinese government officials passed along two photographs showing a military identification card bearing Trembley's picture and the upper torso of a body.

Then, in 1999, specialists with the military's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) interviewed a Chinese citizen who turned over Trembley's identification tag and fragmentary human remains.

Scientists with the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory matched the sample with a sample from Trembley's sister, Catherine Trembley, of Spokane.

"In 1993, we got a picture that put it to rest for me, and I think for all of us," Catherine Trembley told The Spokesman-Review newspaper of Spokane.

"By then we were pretty sure he had been killed in action. It's good to have resolution. It's been a long time, and it's hard on families. I just wish it had come when my parents were here."

Trembley's father died in 1974, and his mother died 10 years later. He is survived by his wife, who remarried in 1974; a son, Forrest Trembley Ehlinger; and a sister, Catherine. Burial services will be in Arlington on April 1.

Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com