AVERY, ROBERT DOUGLAS

Name: Robert Douglas Avery
Rank/Branch: United States Marine Corps/O2
Unit: VMFA 533 MAG 12
Date of Birth:18 December 1941
Home City of Record: Morgantown NC
Date of Loss: 03 May 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 164658 North 1070157 East
Status (in 1973): Presumptive Finding of Death
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A6A
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident: Thomas Clem
Refno: 1156

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined Action
Combat Casualty File, and Senate Select Committee Hearings.


REMARKS: DID NOT RETURN FROM MISSION

Capt. Avery was part of the A6A aircrew. Radar contact was lost after
leaving the target area of Quang Binh, 10 miles south of Quang Kue.

No further information available at this time.

Senate Select Committee Report:

North Vietnam Robert D. Avery
Thomas D. Clem
(1156)

On May 3, 1968, Avery and Clem were the crew in an A-6A on an armed
reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam providing support to U.S.
Air Force operations along Route Package 1. Radar contact was lost
with the aircraft when it was approximately 10 kilometers northwest
of the coastal town of Dong Hoi and six kilometers southeast of the
district seat of Bo Trach in Quang Binh Province. SAR forces were
unable to locate any sign of the crew which was declared missing.

Returning U.S. POWs were unable to provide any information on the
eventual fate of the crew. After Operation Homecoming they were
declared killed in action, body not recovered, based on a
presumptive finding of death.

In January 1991, a U.S. team in Vietnam visited Bo Trach District
and reviewed archival documents. One document listed the downing
of an A-6A on May 3, 1968 in which both crewmen died. In July
1991, U.S. researchers at the Military Region IV museum in Vinh
City obtained access to an archival list of gravesites of Americans
who died there during the war. One entry listed Robert D. Avery as
buried in Quang Ninh District from an F-105 downed on April 15,
1968. In January 1992, a Region IV air defense record listed an A-
6A downed on May 3, 1968 with both crewmen dead. In December 1992,
a copy of the list of burial sites was turned over by Vietnam to
Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on
POW/MIA Affairs.

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