WILLIAMS, ROBERT JOHN

Name: John Robert Williams
Rank/Branch: O3/US Army
Unit: Battery F, 79th Artillery Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division
Date of Birth: 17 September 1943 (Gilroy CA)
Home City of Record: Daleville AL
Date of Loss: 11 May 1972
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 113825N 1063639E (XT766872)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: AH1G
Refno: 1855

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: Rodney L. Strobridge (missing)

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: On May 11, 1972, Capt. Robert J. Williams, pilot, and Capt. Rodney
L. Strobridge, co-pilot, were flying an AH1G helicopter (tail #69-15009), as
wingmen in a flight of three AH1G helicopters launched to support allied
forces at An Loc, in Binh Long Province, South Vietnam.

While pulling off the target, the aircraft was hit by enemy ground fire.
Something had hit near the tail boom, and it was severed from the fusilage.
The aircraft went into a flat spin and crashed. It was believed that a SAM
(surface to air missile) had hit the aircraft because of the immediate
separation of the tail boom.

Capt. Williams' last radio transmission was, "Oh, my God!"

No further radio contact was made with Williams and Strobridge. No one saw
the helicopter hit the ground. Both men were thought to have died in the
crash of their aircraft.

A refugee later reported that while serving in the 21st Division Engineers
at An Loc, he discovered the skeletal remains of an American. The U.S. Army
believes this could have been Williams or Strobridge, but the remains have
never been recovered.

According to witnesses, Williams and Strobridge are almost certainly dead.
Tragically, their families have no grave holding their bodies to visit.
Their remains are on enemy soil and not buried in their homeland. Even more
tragically, evidence mounts that hundreds of Americans are still alive, held
captive in Southeast Asia. What must they be thinking of us?

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