Lt. Michael Blassie's Journey as told by Col. Patricia Blassie (USAF Ret.) - July 29, 2021

Former Air Force Colonel and Cobb County employee Patricia Blassie recently told a crowd at the Cobb Civic Center the compelling story of her brother. The story of Michael Blassie took many twists and turns before his family received the answers they had long suspected.
On Memorial Day 1984, the remains of a soldier killed during the Vietnam War were laid to rest in the Tomb of the Unknown at Arlington National Cemetery. A decade later, however, questions began to arise about the identity of this unknown soldier.
First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie, 24, was shot down over South Vietnam in 1972 and presumed dead. When family members received word that his remains might be buried in the Tomb of the Unknown, they petitioned the Department of Defense to open the site and conduct previously unavailable DNA testing. In 1998 the Tomb of the Unknown was opened and the remains of the Vietnam Unknown-identified as X-26-were removed.