Welcome to my Adopted MIA page
Having served in Vietnam in '69 and being subjected to the callous treatment many returning Vietnam Vets were given, I think I have a small feeling of what it must have been (is) like for the many that have been totally forgotten. To them and their families, loved ones, and friends, I dedicate this page and every effort I can muster, to work towards an accounting of our missing and dead comrades.
| Carl Johnson Spec/5 7th Battalion - 8th Artillery Bien Hoa, Xuan Loc, Ben Luc February, 1969 - September, 1969 United States Army |
Name: Walter Francis Wrobleski
Rank/Branch: W1/US Army
Unit: 218th Aviation Company, 10th Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group
Date of Birth: 28 August 1945 (Neptune NJ)
Home City of Record: Freehold NJ
Date of Loss: 21 May 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 160930N 1071700E (YC458874)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2 Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1D
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing) Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS: None.
SYNOPSIS:
WO Walter F. Wrobleski was the pilot of a UH1C gunship on an extraction mission in the
A Shau Valley on May 21, 1967. He sighted the patrol he was to extract and other
gun ships accompanying Wrobleski established an orbit overhead. Wrobleski was making a strafing run
when it was hit by a burst from a heavy caliber machine gun, and the helicopter's engine
stopped.
The aircraft immediately received more fire, causing it to go out
of control and crash. It rolled down a ravine, and because of the intensity of enemy fire,
other choppers could not get close enough to see if there were survivors.
At 3:57 p.m. the chopper exploded and started to burn. An Air
Force search and rescue aircraft attempted to drop a paramedic team near the crash site,
but were unable to maintain a hover to do so.
Later, a Marine CH46 helicopter rescued one individual alive from
the site. Subsequently, two other men from the incident were hoisted out under heavy enemy
fire. Not realizing the two were on the lines, the aircraft, receiving fire, attempted to
evade fire, dragging the hoist through the trees. The two men were knock- ed off the
hoist. Rescue aircraft continued to orbit the area and flashed signals to the ground.
Those signals were answered from the recovery area and then from a light from the crash
site. Because of the terrain and the short time between sightings, it was believed the
signals could have been from the same individual.
On May 22, a Vietnamese Ranger company that had been inserted
into the area located one of the individuals and had him evacuated by helicopter. The next
day the Rangers located the other individual who walked out with them. Two American
advisors who were with the Ranger unit made a thorough search of the wreckage and the
surrounding area trying to find evidence of human remains.
They believed at that time that the Viet Cong had not visited the
site because of items they found that the Viet Cong would normally have salvaged.
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No sign of Wrobleski was ever found. He was listed as Missing in Action. |
Over 10,000 reports relating to Americans prisoner, missing
and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government since
1975. A Pentagon panel concluded in 1986 that there were at least 100 men still alive.
Walter F. Wrobleski could be one of these men.
How much longer must they wait for this country to
bring them home? I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep pushing
this issue inside the Beltway... The need to get specific answers is more
important now than ever before. If still alive, some MIAs are now in their
70s...They don't have much time left. We have to demand the answers from the
bureaucrats and continue standing on their necks (figuratively
speaking) until they get the message that THEY work for US and that we are serious about
getting these long overdue responses. Diplomatic considerations aside... We can no longer
allow questionable protocols established by pseudo- aristocratic armchair strategists, to
determine or influence the fate of the men who were in the trenches while the diplomats
were sharing sherry and canapés and talking about "Their Plans" for the future
of SE Asia.
If you'd like to see what some others are doing in addition to
writing their congressmen, senators and the Whitehouse, check out some of these sites: http://hawk.nji.com/~mred/mialist.htm