Servicemen Missing from Vietnam War Identified

United States Department of Defense ^ | January 9, 2004 | DoD Media Release

[Calpernia]

Two servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam War have been identified and returned to their families for burial.

They are Navy Lt. j.g. Robert A. Clark of North Hollywood, Calif., and another officer whose name will not be released at the request of his family.

On Jan. 10, 1973, the two took off in an A-6A aircraft from USS Midway on a mission to suppress surface-to-air missiles in North Vietnam. Near the target area in Nghe An Province in North Vietnam, aircrew reported an estimated 15 surface-to-air missiles fired, as well as numerous antiaircraft rounds. Clark’s A-6A was not seen again.

Attempts to contact the crew for four days through radio and visual searches were unsuccessful.

In July 1991, U.S. researchers discovered in a Vietnamese military museum a data plate which correlated to the downed aircraft. Later, in another museum, they discovered photos of a crash site which also correlated to the missing aircraft. U.S. researchers examined Vietnamese wartime records which confirmed the downing of that aircraft in Nghe An Province in January 1973.

Between 1993 and 2002, U.S. researchers and joint U.S.-Vietnam teams conducted four field investigations and one excavation. During one of their field visits, a witness to the 1973 crash turned over remains he claimed to have recovered at the site. During the excavation in 2002, additional remains were recovered.

The remains were identified in 2003 by the Central Identification Laboratory through skeletal analysis and mitochondrial DNA. Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts, 1,871 are from the Vietnam War.

[snippy_about_it]

I'm glad they are both home now. May they rest in peace.

Please accept my condolences. Thank you for the link to the page about Robert, his son looks just like him.

[snopercod]

"His plane was the last Navy jet lost in Vietnam."

I knew his wife Tonya, too.

[snopercod]

My other roommate and I have lost track of his wife Tonya. Last we heard, she lived in Seattle. She was a real sweetheart. Good singing voice, too.

We are attempting to locate her once again. I would like to go the memorial service if one is going to be held.

I'm not sure why I am crying so much over this...hell, it's been 35 years since I've seen him.

[SAMWolf]

Accept my condolences Snopercod. Robert can finally Rest is Peace.

[snopercod]

Thanks Sam. This is going to be tough on his wife and son. I'm pretty sure that Tonya remarried.

If I can find any old photos of him and Tonya from '68, I'll post them. (We went to Cal Poly, SLO together).

[SAMWolf]

I hope this doesn't open old wounds for Tonya. Hopefully she'll be able to lay this part of her life to rest. please convey my condolences and my thanks for the sacrifice she's made.

[JoeSixPack1]

The remains were identified in 2003 by the Central Identification Laboratory through skeletal analysis and mitochondrial DNA. Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts, 1,871 are from the Vietnam War.

Welcome home American warriors.
Thank You, for the ultimate sacrifice.
Rest In Peace.

[snippy_about_it]

I'm not sure why I am crying so much over this...

I imagine bringing Robert home finally brings home the reality to you again, no matter how many years have past. I'm sorry for your loss. I hope you can go to the memorial and locate his wife.

[snopercod]

We're trying to locate Tonya via his son Tad. Tad's stationed over in Okinawa or Korea we think. The military is very cautious about releasing personal information (Linda Tripp excepted).

Alan (nobody ever called him Robert) built this "dune buggy" thing out of a stripped down Buick or Oldsmobile or something - just a frame with a powertrain. V-8 with straight stacks, and loud as hell. Really cool.

We used to drive that thing all over the dunes at Hazard Beach, just South of Morro Bay. It had no brakes in reverse, as we learned when we couldn't make it up "suicide hill" and had to careen back down at 30 MPH backwards. Thought we were gonna' die on that one...just missed a huge rock at the bottom.

He was one of those serious students - always studying so he could make something of himself.

Last Navy plane to be shot down in the Viet Nam war. What a waste of a good life. (Somebody stop me before my anti-war sentiments from the 60s reassert themselves!)

[snippy_about_it]

Keep your eye on the news about this so you can find out about the service if possible. Good luck finding Alan's son and Tonya.

[DB]

I'm sorry to hear about this. It sounds like he lived a full life while he was here.

Reminds me of some of the stupid things I did with friends in cars in my teenage years... In a similar contraption flying through a plowed field the battery fell into the engine fan... It “the car” had no hood or windshield… The acid spray went in our faces… We bailed out an ran for water… We had red faces for awhile…

What would life be without those experiences? ;-)

And what would we do now if we saw our kids doing similar things???

[Valin]

Six degrees of separation, must be true.

[snopercod]

First to Calpernia: Thank you so much for posting this thread. I would never have know that Alan was found, otherwise.

Secondly: Alan's other roommate and I located Tonya and Tad both, but we were too late for the service.

The Internet really wasn't all that much help. I got a list of Tonya Clarks from people.yahoo.com, and called about 10 of them (with the right middle initial) with no luck.

My friend called Kunsan Air Base in Korea (ouch!), and was told that Tad was now in Spangdahlem, Germany. I did manage to find an after-hours phone number on the Internet for the 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs. My friend called there (ouch! again), told them his story, and left his phone number.

Tad had just gotten back from the burial service in Washington State four hours prior, and called my friend.

[in the Arena]

I offer my condolences...

take care my friend,

Jim

[in the Arena]

ping to a homecoming for two more heros...

[snippy_about_it]

I'm glad you found them, and sorry you missed the service. Thanks for letting me know.

[snopercod]

Thanks. Love your home page.

[snopercod]

E-mail from my friend last night:

About 2 hours after you and I talked last, Tonya called me. Tad had called her.

She said that immediately after they found Alan's remains,,, one of the guys on his squadron started emailing everyone he could,,, and so like 85% of the squadron was at the services which were on Friday evening and Sat morning [at Arlington National Cemetary]. She said there were senators and congressmen there and a governor of some state too....a BUNCH of high big wigs.

She was heartbroken that you and I couldn't be there.....she said that all kinds of things are happening.........remember just the other day when you and I talked???? When I asked you how you found that particular post on FR?? And you said you don't usually go to that section but you did?? It seems like a bunch of things like that are happening. IE, Tad explained to me that due to the time difference between here and Nam,,, it was exactly 31 years almost to the hour between Clark getting shot down and the services beginning in DC. And Tonya and Tad are both Christians and Tonya was just amazed at how all this happened so fast and about how you and I tried so desperately to find her/Tad and she was cryin' on the phone,,, too.

[snip]

Anyway,,, Tonya said she did get remarried but that it didn't last and she still goes by Clark. Clark's sis is still around but his parents are gone....they were pretty old when Clark was young, already. She teaches voice and piano!!! up there near Seattle. It was weird,,,Sharon and I were sittin' out in the front yard in the sun havin' a beer and the phone rang and I ran in to get it and Tonya says' 'this is Tonya Clark',,, so I just immediately went 'la la laaaaaa'. She got it. I told her you have a tape somewhere you're trying to find of her singing that. THAT needs to be on an audio file,,, huh....post it everywhere.

So, thanks again. I did find a couple pics you took....of Clark and Tonya in the back of your Datsun parked at Foothill Gardens,,,,that's the ONLY pic I've found of those days. Also one of him shakin' hands with some navy captain or something.....I thought sure I had more,,, I gotta go through ALL my negatives.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks snopercod. Your homepage has you in NC. Not to far at all to take a drive to Arlington. ;-)

Thanks for sharing the e-mail. I'm so very glad they were able to bring Alan home and that they chose to bury him in Arlington, it's such a humbling and beautiful place to visit.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for sharing a little of Tonya with us snopercod.

I'm glad a lot of his old Squadron mates made it to the service. Sounds like Tonya is doing ok and she'll be finally be able to lay Alan to Rest. I wish her well. I know the feeling about the pictures, I could have sworn I had more of a friend of mine. It's amazing how many boxes and albums of photographs you accumulate over the years. Good luck in your hunt, each one will you find will renew a memory of a different time and place.