CUTRER, FRED CLAY JR. Remains Identified 10/30/01
Name: Fred Clay Cutrer, Jr. Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force Unit: 405th Fighter Wing Date of Birth: 09 January 1935 Home City of Record: Osyka MS Date of Loss: 06 August 1964 Country of Loss: South Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 110953N 1070444E (YT270349) Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered Category: 2 Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: B57B Refno: 0036
Other Personnel in Incident: Leonard L. Kaster (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 1990 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 2002.
REMARKS: AC CRASH EXPLODE HVY VC - J
SYNOPSIS: The B57 Canberra was one of the aircraft used by the U.S. Air Force to bomb the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Canberra first came to the Vietnam theater at the time of the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964. It proved too vulnerable and difficult to repair for working targets over North Vietnam, but proved effective in the armed reconnaissance Trail operations of Operation Steel Tiger. The Canberra was sometimes used in conjunction with other, more sophisticated aircraft, such as the C130, and was especially effective on night missions.
Capt. Fred C. Cutrer Jr. was the pilot of a Canberra sent on an operational mission over South Vietnam on August 6, 1964. The navigator onboard the aircraft was 1Lt. Leonard L. Kaster. Aircraft control last heard from the aircraft by radio when it was northeast of Tan Son Nhut.
The aircraft went down near the Sang Dong Nai River in Long Khan Province, South Vietnam. According to Defense Intelligence data, it received heavy fire from Viet Cong forces, crashed and exploded. Neither crewman was believed to have survived. Both were classified Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered.
Cutrer and Kaster are listed among the missing because their remains were never recovered. Others who are missing do not have such clear-cut cases. Some were known captives; some were photographed as they were led by their guards. Some were in radio contact with search teams, while others simply disappeared.
Well over 1000 first-hand, eye-witness reports of American prisoners still alive in Southeast Asia have been received by 1990. Most of them are still classified. If, as the U.S. seems to believe, the men are all dead, why the secrecy after so many years? If the men are alive, why are they not home?
Fred C. Cutrer, Jr. was promoted to the rank of Major before a determination of death was made.
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UPDATE LINE: OCTOBER 30, 2001
AMERICANS ACCOUNTED FOR: The League learned today that the remains of seven US personnel previously unaccounted for from the Vietnam War had been identified. The remains of Navy CDR John A. Feldhaus of TN were jointly recovered in North Vietnam on April 26, 2000. The remains of Air Force Reservists Capt Fred C. Cutrer, Jr, of MS and 1LT Leonard L. Kaster of MA were jointly recovered in South Vietnam and repatriated on May 22, 1997. The February 11, 2000, joint recovery in Laos of the remains of four Americans brought identification of WO1 Barry F. Fivelson of IL, Specialists 4th Class Willis C. Crear of AL, Donald E. Crone of CA and John L. Powers of Idaho.
Comment: The League offers support to each family, recognizing the end to many years of uncertainty for all. This brings the number accounted for since the end of the war to 636: 455 from Vietnam, 156 from Laos, 23 from Cambodia and 2 from the PRC. Of the 1949 still missing and unaccounted for, 1470 are in Vietnam, 411 in Laos, 60 in Cambodia and 8 in the territorial waters of the PRC. Of the total number, roughly 90% were lost in areas under Vietnam's wartime control.