October’s Lost and Found

There are eight men from Michigan who went missing in the Vietnam War in October. Of the locals, two were from Royal Oak, one from Rochester, and one from Detroit. These eight are among the 48 service men from Michigan who are still officially Unaccounted For. 

Oct. 1, 1965, Royal Oak’s Maj. Martin John Massucci (43 TFW) was piloting an F-4 Phantom II with two other aircraft on a strike and armed reconnaissance mission against the Ban Tang staging area in North Vietnam. Near Son La Province, the Phantom took enemy fire, and the crew were advised to bail out after flames were visible on their aircraft. One of Massucci’s two crew members was seen parachuting out before the aircraft crashed. No radio response was detected from Massucci or the other missing crew member, Col. Charles Joseph Scharf of California, and the exact crash site could not be located. Massucci’s and Scharf’s remains were declared Unaccounted For.  

Between 1992 and 2006, a joint Vietnamese / U.S. team located then investigated the crash site and found human remains.  Col. Charles Joseph Scharf’s remains were finally recovered and positively identified Aug. 31, 2006. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Nov. 30, 2006, with full military honors. Unfortunately, Maj. Martin Massucci remains lost and is officially listed as Unaccounted For -  Non-recoverable. According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Office, the Non-recoverable designation is for cases assessed to have negative potential for accounting, such as cases in which the remains are lost at seas, or remains of an individual were cremated and/or systematically destroyed. 

1953 U.S. Naval Academy grad and Royal Oak native, Air Force Col. George Edward Tyler (390 TFS 366 TFW)  was flight commander of his F-4D Phantom II on a nighttime armed recon mission over North Korea with two other planes when he took enemy fire near Phu Qui on October 24, 1968. His rear seat pilot successfully ejected before the crash, but Tyler did not make it. Attempts to locate his remains were unsuccessful, and his status has been categorized as Unaccounted For - Active Pursuit. According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the Active Pursuit designation means that there is sufficient information to justify research, investigation, or recovery operations in the field. These cases are the priority for operational planning and allocation of resources. 38 years old at his time of death, Col. George Tyler left a wife and four children behind in Royal Oak. 

George Tyler

Rochester Army SSG. Dennis Lee Gauthier’s (CO C 3BN 12 INF 4 INF DIV) company was ambushed by enemy forces near Pleiku, South Vietnam on Oct. 31, 1969. His platoon was moving into position on a hill to provide cover when enemy forces opened fire on them. Gauthier was hit but could not be evacuated due to heavy hostile gunfire. Search teams were not able to locate him, nor any remains, once the gunfire ceased; he is still listed as Unaccounted For – Active Pursuit. His memorial cenotaph is located at A, 0, 183 at Fort Custer National Cemetery in Augusta, Michigan. 

Detroit Air Force CMSgt. Robert La Verne Hill (37 ARS) disappeared along with six other men Oct. 18, 1966. A 35-year-old Korean War vet, he was a flight mechanic aboard a large amphibious seaplane, an HU-16B Albatross, on a search and rescue mission out of Du Nang Air Base in South Vietnam. Mission completed, the Albatross radioed that it was returning to base from its position in the Gulf of Tonkin. That was the last time the crew was heard from. Search teams could find no traces of the seven crewmen or the Albatross; all seven are listed as Unaccounted For – Non-recoverable. Hill’s memorial cenotaph is located at Section 8, Site 4 at San Francisco National Cemetery. 

Martin John Massucci

Marine Corps CWO2 Bruce Edward Boltze (Sub Unit 1, 1st ANGLICO) of Flint set out on a forward air control mission with another service member Oct. 6, 1972.  Boltze was the spotter aboard their OV-10 Bronco when they disappeared from radar over water near Da Nang, South Vietnam. A water search team located the Bronco’s wreckage but neither of the two service members’ remains. Both men are listed as Unaccounted For – Active Pursuit. 

Lansing Air Force Capt. Kenneth Earl Walker (1 ACO SQDN)  was piloting an A-1E Skyraider along with a VNAF student pilot on Oct. 2, 1964. They were the number three aircraft in a flight of four over targets near Tra Vinh Province, South Vietnam, when their plane went into a dive, crashed into the water, flipped over, and immediately sank into the South China Sea. Aerial and Navy Search and Rescue could find no survivors amid the strong currents and threat of hostile presence on shore; subsequent searches post-war were also negative. Sixty years later, Capt Walker’s status remains Unaccounted For – Active Pursuit. 

Air Force Capt. William Henry Stroven (11 TRS 432 TRW) of Freemont, MI was piloting an RF-4C Phantom II with his navigator on a nighttime recon mission over enemy targets in North Vietnam Oct. 28, 1968. There was no more radio contact from them after checking in over Quang Binh Province and the Phantom never returned to base. In a now familiar story, neither the aircraft nor the two service members’ remains could be located. Both are still listed as Unaccounted For – Active Pursuit. 

1963 U.S. Naval Academy grad and Navy LCDR John Bowers Worcester of Big Rapids, MI was alone piloting an A-4C Skyhawk on the night of Oct. 19, 1965, on a two-plane recon mission over North Vietnam. He attacked a bridge, then checked in with his flight leader. When he didn’t complete his next check in or return to base, a search team retraced his flight path to no result. The second plane had seen nothing, and  neither a crash site nor Worcester’s remains could be found; his status became Unaccounted For -  Active Pursuit. In Big Rapids, his cenotaph is at Highlandview Cemetery (Block 6, Lot 5, Plot 6) and a monument erected by his Annapolis classmates in a city park memorializes John “Smiley” Worcester. 

These missing heroes’ names were memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii (aka Punchbowl). Their names were also inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. If any additional remains are recovered and positively identified, as with Col. Scharf, a bronze rosette will be placed next to their name on the two marble Vietnam War walls at the Courts of the Missing in Honolulu to publicly designate them as officially Accounted For.  

There are still 1,574 U.S. service members Unaccounted For from the Vietnam War.  

CREDIT: Thank you to Ms. Marty Eddy, Michigan Coordinator of the National League of POW / MIA Families, for our missing men’s names.