LAPHAM, ROBERT GRANTHAN

Name: Robert Granthan Lapham
Rank/Branch: O4/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 18 February 1927
Home City of Record: Marshall MI
Date of Loss: 08 February 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 163158N 1064157E
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A1E
Refno: 1043

Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S.
Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families,
published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 1998.

Other Personnel In Incident: none missing

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: Maj. Robert Lapham won a Silver Star for one of the most
important bombing attacks of the war. Despite heavy enemy ground fire, he
successfully broke a heavy siege upon U.S. troops near the demilitarized
zone (DMZ). He is believed to have died in the mission when the A1E
Skyraider he was piloting apparently was hit and exploded with a half-load
of bombs aboard. His plane apparently was hit by machinegun fire that had
forced the three other planes he was leading to turn back.

Neither Lapham's body nor wreckage of the aircraft was found. The Air Force
described the mission as one of "extraordinary achievement".

Robert Lapham's wife died five years after he went missing. She never knew
for sure whether he died or just disappeared.

When the war ended, refugees from the communist-overrun countries of
Southeast Asia began to flood the world, bringing with them stories of live
GI's still in captivity in their homelands. Since 1975, over 6000 such
stories have been received. Many authorities believe that hundreds of
Americans are still held in the countries in Southeast Asia.

The U.S. Government operates on the "assumption" that one or more men are
being held, but that it cannot "prove" that this is the case, allowing
action to be taken. Meanwhile, low-level talks between the U.S. and Vietnam
proceed, yielding a few sets of remains when it seems politically expedient
to return them, but as yet, no living American has returned.


Robert's sister, Helen, died in the early 90's, still bravely fighting for
information on her brother. In death, with the Lord, she may have found the
answers she sought.

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