Tours of Duty Releases Farlow Case Findings After Vietnamese Family Says It Cared for American's Grave for More Than 50 Years

The findings examine whether a reported burial lead for Chief Warrant Officer Craig Lee Farlow was fully exhausted after a witness allegedly told recovery personnel they had not dug deep enough.
Washington DC - May 28, 2026 - Tours of Duty has released case findings on Chief Warrant Officer Craig Lee Farlow, a U.S. Army aviator lost in South Vietnam on May 16, 1971, whose case remains unresolved more than five decades after his UH-1 helicopter crashed under enemy fire.

Farlow was serving with Company A, 101st Aviation Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, when his aircraft was hit, lost rotor power, crashed into trees, and caught fire. Enemy activity prevented an immediate recovery effort, and when a later search was conducted, the remains of all but one crew member could not be located.

More than fifty years later, a Vietnamese family told Tours of Duty they knew where Craig Farlow had been buried.

Their account was not a vague rumor. According to the family, one of their own had buried the remains in the family plot after the crash and the family had cared for the grave for decades. They later built a small memorial to him and kept his photograph in their home.

That is the human weight of this case: while an American soldier remained missing to his own country, a Vietnamese family says it tended his resting place with reverence.

Tours of Duty met with members of the family in the United States and encouraged them to cooperate fully when they were told Vietnamese authorities and DPAA would be coming to the site. If the grave held Craig Farlow, the objective was clear: he deserved to come home.

According to information provided to Tours of Duty, DPAA went to the family plot, the witness who said he buried Farlow was present, the family cooperated, and the site was available. DPAA reportedly excavated to approximately 52 centimeters, declared nothing found, and ended the effort.

The witness reportedly told them to keep digging.

The Farlow findings ask a direct question: when a family comes forward, a burial witness is standing at the site, and that witness says the remains are deeper, how can a recovery effort stop short and call the mission complete?

The findings do not claim every lead guarantees a recovery. They recognize that witnesses can be mistaken, sites can shift, burials can be disturbed, remains can degrade, and time can make recovery work difficult. But those realities are precisely why burial-specific leads require rigorous investigation, careful excavation strategy, and a willingness to follow evidence beyond a shallow procedural threshold.

Tours of Duty's findings argue that a witness who claims to have buried a missing American is not background noise at a recovery site. He is evidence. His account should be tested, documented, and exhausted before the government walks away.

The Farlow release is part of a broader series of Vietnam-era case findings from Tours of Duty examining field-developed leads, witness accounts, family-held knowledge, and concerns that America's POW/MIA accounting mission has become too dependent on administrative activity and not strong enough in true case investigation.

The issue raised by the Farlow findings is larger than one reported grave. It is whether the accounting system still has the investigative capacity to listen to witnesses, test conflicting information, pursue difficult leads, and keep digging when the field evidence demands it.

Vietnam-era cases are running out of time. First-generation witnesses are aging. Families are aging. Local memory is disappearing. Burial accounts, crash-site knowledge, and family-held information may not survive much longer. When a family says it has protected an American's grave for more than half a century, the United States should meet that claim with urgency, humility, and a recovery effort worthy of the man who never came home.

Craig Farlow deserves more than a crash summary and a shallow dig. He deserves a serious case investigation, a serious recovery strategy, and a government willing to exhaust every avenue before it walks away.

The Vietnamese family that honored him deserves better, too.

The full Farlow case findings are available here: Farlow, Craig Refno 1746 [https://toursofduty.org/farlow-craig-refno-1746/]

About Tours of Duty

Tours of Duty is a veteran-led nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the search, recovery, and fullest possible accounting of America's missing servicemembers. The organization conducts field investigations, witness interviews, case research, site analysis, and mission development in support of unresolved POW/MIA cases, while reconnecting veterans to purpose through service.

For media inquiries please contact:

Mike Luehring

Senior Mission Attache, Tours of Duty

m.luehring@toursofduty.org

202-539-9615

www.toursofduty.org

Media Contact
Company Name: Tours of Duty
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This release was published on openPR.