consular report of death abroad. Laos 1968 James E Vick

Question

locate a death report for US citizen James Everett Vick that died in Laos in 2-24-1968. Remains were not recovered from Commercial plane crash.

Textual Reference Branch, Archives II · Answer

deniseb 
 Thank you for posting your question on History Hub! 
 We searched the National Archives Catalog and located Reports of the Deaths of American Citizens, January 1963&ndash;December 1974 in the General Records of the Department of State (Record Group 59). These series have been digitized and made available online by our partner, Ancestry.com, for a fee, as part of the collection U.S., Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1974 . The digitized records on Ancestry.com are available free of charge in all NARA Research Rooms , including those in our regional archives and Presidential Libraries. Also, many local public, university, and state libraries subscribe to Ancestry and make it available to their patrons for free. 
 As a courtesy, we searched the data collection for you using the National Archives&rsquo; subscription to AncestryInstitution. However, we could not find any matches for James Vick. It may be that since no remains were recovered, the Consulate did not report him as dead. 
 According to Find-A-Grave , there is a memorial for him at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. We spoke to the staff at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery; however, they informed us that they do not have a copy of any death records for him in their custody. 
 We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the Applications for Headstones, 1/1/1925 - 6/30/1970 in the Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General (Record Group 92) and the Applications for Headstones and Markers, 7/1/1970 - 9/30/1985 in the Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs (Record Group 15) that may include one for 1st Lt. James E. Vick. For more information about these records, please contact the National Archives at St. Louis (RRPO) at stl.archives@nara.gov . 
 We then located his obituary online. The obituary states that he was at the time of his death a resident of Rome, Georgia. Next, we spoke to the Georgia State Office of Vital Records . They informed us that if he was declared dead by a court, those records would not be with them, but would be with the court where the proceedings took place. We suggest that you contact the Clerk of Superior Court, Floyd County, Georgia as well as the county courts for any other places that his heirs may have petitioned a court for such a declaration. 
 Finally, while his military service records would likely not contain records of his death as he appears to have not died while in active service, should you need proof of his military service for any purposes, you may use eVetRecs to request his separation documents. If your request is urgent, please see the instruction under Emergency Requests and Deadlines . 
 We hope this assists you! 
 Sincerely, 
 Textual Reference Archives II Branch (RR2RA) 
 23-51215-JA