DYCZKOWSKI, ROBERT RAYMOND
Remains recovered 11/19/99, date of remains identification announcement
unknown. Burial April 2001. See article.

Name: Robert Raymond Dyczkowski
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron, Korat Airbase, Thailand
Date of Birth: 23 June 1932
Home City of Record: Buffalo NY
Date of Loss: 23 April 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 220000N 1055000E (WK860328)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F105D
Refno: 0313
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1991 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 2001.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: The F105 Thunderchief ("Thud"), in its various versions, flew more
missions against North Vietnam than any other U.S. aircraft. It also
suffered more losses, partially due to its vulnerability, which was
constantly under revision.

Robert R. Dyczkowski was born in Buffalo, New York in 1932. He attended St.
Mary's Parochial School and Burgard Vocational High School, where he became
a member of the Civil Air Patrol. While a member of the Air Force reserves,
he was accepted for pilot training and subsequently sent to Vietnam as an
F105 pilot.

Pilots in Vietnam did not serve a certain period of time, as was the case
with ground troops, but rather flew 100 missions which completed their tour
in-country. It was on Dyczkowski's 99th mission in North Vietnam on April
23, 1966 that his F-105 disappeared about 75 miles north of Hanoi.
Dyczkowski's aircraft was number two in a flight of three and disappeared
after pulling off the target. He failed to rejoin the flight after
acknowledging instructions to do so. Subsequent radio contact with him was
unsuccessful all search efforts were fruitless. There has been no further
information concerning his fate.

Mounting evidence indicates that hundreds of Americans are still alive in
captivity in Southeast Asia. The U.S. Government has regular talks with the
Vietnamese and has negotiated the excavation of a crash site and the return
of about 100 remains, but has failed to successfully negotiate for the
return of those Americans still held captive.

Robert R. Dyczkowski was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during
the period he was maintained missing.

=========================================

Associated Press Newswires
Wednesday, March 14, 2001

Remains found in Vietnam identified as Buffalo-area pilot

   TONAWANDA, N.Y. (AP) - Air Force Capt. Robert Dyczkowski will be given a
place in Arlington National Cemetery on April 6, 35 years after his death
during a bombing mission over North Vietnam.

  Some of the Buffalo-area pilot's belongings and a bone fragment were
recently found and identified, said family members who waited for
decades for the news.

   "We now have some closure," his older sister, Lee Fellner, told The
Buffalo News.

  Although Dyczkowski's body was not found, plane wreckage, a bone fragment
(too small to yield DNA information), part of Dyczkowski's military
identification card and part of a flight helmet embossed with "Capt. Dyc
..." were determined to be sufficient circumstantial evidence to allow the
remains to be designated as those of Dyczkowski, the Army Central
Identification Laboratory in Hawaii told the family.

  Some of the artifacts will be buried at Arlington next month as family
members, including his widow and grown children, look on.

  Dyczkowski's F-105 fighter-bomber disappeared April 23, 1966. Dyczkowski,
33, was on his 99th mission, and had one more to go before returning home
the following week.

  "We were told that his plane had gone down and it might be a couple of
days" before his fate was known, Fellner said. "A couple of days became a
couple of years, and we still didn't know."

  The pilot was listed as missing in action for 12 years. In 1978, the
military changed his designation to "presumed killed in action, body not
recovered."

  "He died serving his country and as an honorable man doing his duty,"
Fellner said. "... I have no bitterness" (over U.S. involvement in the war).

  Dyczkowski, who was promoted to colonel posthumously, left behind a wife,
Delma, and three children, now 36, 39 and 41.

  "You never give up hope," Delma Dyczkowski said from her Arizona home
Wednesday when asked whether she believed her husband's remains would ever
be found.

  "There's some relief," she said. "It would have been better if it would
have been sooner but I am grateful that the government is still searching
for remains."

  Both she and Fellner spoke sympathetically of families of other missing
soldiers who still don't know what became of their loved ones.

  "We now have some closure, but a lot of other families don't," Fellner
said, "and we will continue to support them."