Vietnam War Missing in Action Serviceman Identified

[Shortdawg]

NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense

No. 499-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2005
Media Contact: (703)697-5131
Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

Vietnam War Missing in Action Serviceman Identified


The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced
today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam
War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military
honors.



He is Air Force Maj. Robert Harry Schuler, Jr., of Wellsburg, N.Y. His
internment is scheduled for Saturday in Franklindale, Penn.



On Oct. 15, 1965, Shuler was flying his F-105 *Thunderchief* as part of
a four-ship flight north of Hanoi when the lead aircraft was hit by enemy fire.
Shuler remained in the area to provide support to the downed pilot while the two
other aircraft departed for aerial refueling. When they returned, Shuler was no
longer in the area and they could not establish radio contact with him. An
extensive aerial search of the entire flight route met with negative results.



Between 1993 and 1998, joint U.S. and Vietnamese teams conducted seven
investigations, including unilateral archival research by Vietnamese officials.
The final investigation in Nov. 1998 led the teams to a Vietnamese army officer who
recounted his unit shooting down an F-105 on the date and in the area where Schuler
went down. That team surveyed the crash area, found fragments of an F-105, and
recommended the area for excavation.



Teams led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) excavated the
site on four occasions between Sept. 1999 and Mar. 2001, recovering more wreckage
as well as human remains. In addition to other forensic tools, JPAC scientists
used mitochondrial DNA comparisons to confirm the identification of Schuler's
remains.



Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from WWII, the Korean War,
the Cold War, the Vietnam War and Desert Storm, 1,833 are from the Vietnam War,
with 1,397 of those within the country of Vietnam. Another 750 Americans have been
accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War, with 524 of those from the country
of Vietnam.



For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to
account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call
703-699-1169.

[MontanaKid]

My unit 1st Bn 46th Inf, Americal, has two KIA/body-not-recovered. One from the rescue at Kham Duc in May 0f 1969. Another from a command-detonated 500-pound bomb plast, also in 1968. It would be nice to get them back home.

[DMZ-LT]

Our Air Cav Troop lost a lot of body not recovered people in Laos . I had one MIA but we all knew he was dead . Welcome Home Robert

[Boats]

O God, by whose mercy the faithful departed find rest, look kindly on your departed veterans who gave their lives in the service of their country. Grant that through the passion, death, and resurrection of your Son they may share in the joy of your heavenly kingdom and rejoice in you with your saints forever.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.


Welcome home Bob may you rest in peace.