HOLDEMAN, ROBERT EUGENE
REMAINS RETURNED 06/26/97

Name: Robert Eugene Holdeman
Rank/Branch: O2/United States Marine Corps/aircrew
Unit: VMA 242 Mag 11
Date of Birth: 30 October 1931
Home City of Record: Winchester IN
Date of Loss: 25 November 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam/Over water
Loss Coordinates: 200000 North 1070000 East
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A6A
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident: Abrams, Lewis Herbert - remains returned

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.

REMARKS:

NOTE: CACCF states "crash not at sea"

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE NEWS RELEASE-60TH AIR MOBILITY WING(AMW)
PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIVISION,
TRAVIS AFB, CA PHONE: (707)424-2011
NEWS RELEASE NO. 9706-20 JUNE 26, 1997

The remains of FIVE American service members previously unaccounted for from
Southeast Asia have been identified and are being returned to their families
for burial in the United States. Their remains will be repatriated in a
ceremony at 4:00 pm June 26 on the Travis flight line.

They are identified as LT.COL. LEWIS H. ABRAMS, MARINE CORPS, of Montclair,
N.J.; MAJ. ROBERT E. HOLDEMAN, MARINE CORPS. of Winchester, Ind.; and
CAPTAIN JOHN N. FLANIGAN, MARINE CORPS, of Winter Haven, Fla. THE NAMES OF
TWO AIR FORCE AVIATORS WILL NOT BE RELEASED AT THE REQUEST OF THEIR
FAMILIES.

On Nov. 25, 1967, Abrams and Holdeman were shot down while flying a night
strike mission near Haiphong, North Vietnam. A radio Peking broadcast
confirmed the Marine Corps aircraft had been shot down in the vicinity of
Haiphong. In 1988 ' the Socialist Republic of Vietnam repatriated what they
believed to be the remains of U.S. service personnel lost during the Vietnam
War. Included in the remains was a military identification card fragment
with what appeared to be the name Abrams.

In 1993 and 1995, joint U.S. and Vietnamese teams investigated and excavated
a crash site in Hai Phong Province. Local villagers reported that remains
had previously recovered and turned over to higher authorities. They also
turned over bone fragments found near the crash site. On August 19, 1969,
Flanigan and his pilot were flying an F-4B as escort for a photo recon
mission over North Vietnam. They lost contact with other aircraft in their
flight, and never made it back to their base at Danang, South Vietnam. In
1989, the Vietnamese gov. repatriated remains believed to be those of
Flanigan. Four subsequent joint US and Vietnamese investigations were able
to locate their crash site in Quang Binh Province. The site was excavated
in 1995 where aircraft wreckage, aircrew related items, and personnel
effects were located, but NO human remains were found. The remains of
Flanigan turned over by the Vietnamese were positively identified and
Mitochondrial DNA testing was used to confirm the identification. With the
identification of these FIVE service members, 2118 Americans remain
unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.** No additional information about the
two Air Force aviators has been given.****

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