Boeing B52 Stratofortress bombers have long been the Air Force’s most important strategic bomber. Used heavily in Vietnam, the venerable aircraft continued its role throughout the Southeast Asia conflict and played an important role in the Persian Gulf war two decades later.
On June 18, 1965, two B52 aircraft were performing a mission over the South China Sea when they collided. The aircraft were approximately 250 miles offshore at the point of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) when the accident occurred. Apparently the crew of one of the aircraft survived or were recovered, but the entire crew of the second remain missing.
The missing crew includes pilots Capt. Robert L. Armond and 1Lt. James A.
Marshall, and crewmembers Maj. James M.
Gehrig, Capt. Tyrrell G. Lowry, Capt.
Frank P. Watson, TSgt. William E. Neville, and MSgt. Harold J. Roberts Jr.
All the crew and passengers on board the B52 downed that day were confirmed dead. It is unfortunate, but a cold reality of war that their remains were not recoverable. They are listed with honor among the missing because their remains cannot be buried with honor at home.
Others who are missing do not have such clear-cut cases. Some were known captives; some were photographed as they were led by their guards. Some were in radio contact with search teams, while others simply disappeared.
Since the war ended, over 250,000 interviews have been conducted with those who claim to know about Americans still alive in Southeast Asia, and several million documents have been studied. U.S. Government experts cannot seem to agree whether Americans are there alive or not. Detractors say it would be far too politically difficult to bring the men they believe to be alive home, and the U.S. is content to negotiate for remains.
Well over 1000 first-hand, eye-witness reports of American prisoners still alive in Southeast Asia have been received by 1990. Most of them are still classified. If, as the U.S. seems to believe, the men are all dead, why the secrecy after so many years? If the men are alive, why are they not home?
Incidental Information
Click
Here to view a queried report of messages and
files concerning James Gehrig from the POW/MIA
Database at the Library of Congress's Federal
Research Division. (Links
will open in New Browser Window).
You can run queries on various name spellings to view the messages.
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Honored
on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Panel 02E - - Line 12
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The VietNam Veterans' Memorial
Wall Page
Did you serve with this HERO? Is
he Family, an old friend, or a High School Sweetheart? Is there something
special you would like to share about James -- If so, I would like to hear about
it and post it on this page!!
Please send me an e-mail
