Bio, Fisher, David J.

Dave Fisher's ceremony at NOI BAI Airport Vietnam. Name: David John Elkington Fisher Rank/Branch: E1/SAS #2787344 Unit: J Troop, Special Air Service Date of Birth: (23 at time of loss) Home City of Record: Australia Date of Loss: 27 September 1969 Country of Loss: South Vietnam Loss Coordinates: YS633957 (Nui May Toa's, NE of Phuoc Tuy Province) Status (in 1973): Missing in Action Category: Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 October 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 with information from Australia's Bob Coker. 2008

SYNOPSIS: In 1984, the Australian government sent delegates to Vietnam to find fresh evidence on missing Australians. It was abandoned when the party failed to learn anything about the men's fate. Australian foreign affairs minister, Bill Hayden, recommended the cases be closed, that the Vietnamese government had cooperated fully with the search and the subject of the missing men, and it should no longer be an issue between the two countries.

Yet reports continue to be received in the U.S. from refugees and intelligence sources convincing many authorities that hundreds of servicemen are still being held captive. The veterans of Australia, like those of Canada and the U.S. refuse to accept their governments' dismissal of the issue.

Fisher was a member of J troop in the Australian Special Air Service, a service unit similar to the U.S. Army Special Forces. On September 27, 1969, J troop engaged and killed five Viet Cong. As the patrol withdrew they encountered about 30 of the enemy, and requested an emergency extraction. The rescue helicopter dropped ropes through the trees to lift the troops to safety. Fisher and the rest of the unit were lifted out on the ropes, but Fisher lost his grip and fell from an altitude of about 30 meters.

Search teams tried to locate Fisher but were unsuccessful. They were uncertain if he could have survived, but felt the dense jungle foliage might have cushioned his fall. There were also a number of water-filled craters in the area and had Fisher been injured and fallen into one of them, he probably would not have survived. Fisher was classified Missing in Action.

David J.E. Fisher's name does not appear on most U.S. lists since he was not a U.S. citizen. However, as thousands of U.S. veterans would confirm, the "Aussies" were welcome additions to any mission. Their bravery was well known, and they were well-liked. 47,000 Australians were sent to Vietnam between 1961 and 1971; 504 were killed and 2,500 were wounded. None were captured -- or were they?

The Australians sent their young men to help in a war that was not their own. It is fitting that Americans should include their missing in their quest for freedom for those still prisoner, missing or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia.

Fisher, D J E Number: 2787344 Rank: Private [Pte] Unit: 3 SAS Sqn SASR (RA INF) Service: Army Conflict: Vietnam, 1962-1972 Date of Death: 27/09/1969 Place of Death: South Vietnam Cause of Death: Missing presumed dead (battle casualty) Memorial Panel: 5 Cemetery or Memorial Details: Next Of Kin: Father - Mr W A Fisher Notes: Source: AWM153 Roll of Honour cards, Vietnam

Missing soldier 'may be in Hawaii'

By Max Blenkin

March 26, 2008 03:49pm

AN Australian army team is in Vietnam following leads in the search for the remains of Private David Fisher, one of three Australian servicemen still missing from the Vietnam war.

One rumour being investigated is that he might have been taken alive by enemy forces.

The latest investigation follows the recovery of the remains last year of Lance Corporal John Gillespie, killed in a helicopter crash in April 1971, and Lance Corporal Richard Parker and Private Peter Gillson, both killed in fighting in 1965.

Still missing are Pte Fisher, as well as Pilot Officer Robert Carver and Flying Officer Michael Herbert, both killed when their Canberra bomber disappeared in 1970.

Pte Fisher, 23, a national service member of the Special Air Service Regiment, was part of a five-man patrol operating near the Nui May Tao Mountains in South Vietnam's Phuoc Tuy province on September 27, 1969.

His unit encountered a much larger North Vietnamese force and the patrol leader called in choppers to evacuate his soldiers.

A hovering RAAF Iroquois helicopter dropped ropes to which patrol members attached themselves. As the helicopter flew away, Pte Fisher fell to the ground.

Reports then and since suggested he could not have survived the 30-metre fall.

But intensive searches in the days that followed failed to find any trace of the soldier.

Head of the army history unit, Roger Lee, said sources in Vietnam had provided suggestions about what might have happened to Pte Fisher.

Two members of the unit are now in Vietnam following up leads with the government office which deals with those missing from the Vietnam conflict.

"One of the leads that we are still checking out is that his remains had been recovered and sent back to Hawaii as part of the United States MIA (missing in action) recovery operations," Mr Lee said.

"One of the rumours suggests that the Viet Cong took Fisher away from the site where he was found. One source says he was still alive. We have no evidence of that. I don't know. No-one knows."

Mr Lee said Vietnamese authorities were providing full cooperation.

"They can't do enough for us," he said.

The area in which Pte Fisher went missing is fairly well defined, but that can't be said of the search for the missing RAAF personnel.

Their aircraft disappeared from radar screens as it returned from a bombing mission north of Da Nang on November 3, 1970. There was no distress call and no wreckage has ever been found.

One theory suggests it disintegrated at altitude, possibly when hit by a missile, with debris spread over a wide area.

Jim Bourke, a Vietnam veteran whose organisation Operations Aussies Home launched last year's successful MIA recovery operations, said he was now trying to galvanise interest in a proper investigation through the Vietnamese authorities.

"Someone might have stumbled across a big lump of metal but you don't know unless you ask," he said.

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