GRUBB, WILBER NEWLIN
USG STATES "WILMER"

Remains Returned 13 March 1974

Name: Wilber Newlin "Newk" Grubb
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: Unknown, per USAF
Date of Birth: 14 August 1932
Home City of Record: Aldan PA
Date of Loss: 26 January 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 173400N 1061600E (XE344425)
Status (in 1973): Killed in Captivity
Category: 1
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: RF101C

Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

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 2023.

REMARKS: 740313 REMS RETD

SYNOPSIS: On January 26, 1966, Capt. Newk Grubb was the pilot of an RF101C
Voodoo reconnaissance aircraft sent on an unarmed photo reconnaissance
mission over Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. The flight occurred during
a Christmas bombing halt.

As Grubb's aircraft was about twenty miles southwest of the city of Quang
Khe, it experienced difficulty in gaining altitude and crashed into a
hillside.

The next day the communist New China News Agency began publicizing the
capture of Newk Grubb, followed closely by the Hanoi propaganda machine.
Hanoi conveniently obscured the true (unarmed photo reconnaissance) nature
of Grubb's mission. On February 3, Radio Hanoi broadcast a statement
attributed to him. On February 7, there was another broadcast, this time in
Grubb's voice. Beginning on February 10, photographs of him appeared in
communist countries around the world. He appeared health except for a wound
in the leg.

But four years later, Hanoi announced that he died nine days after capture,
"as a result of injuries in crash" -- before the pictures were published
anywhere.

Evelyn Grubb wrote her husband often, usually stapling a photo of their four
sons to the letter. Newk Grubb had never seen their youngest son, who was
born about 6 months after his shootdown. But she never received any reply at
all.

In 1973, when 591 Americans were released from POW camps in Hanoi, Grubb was
not among them. A year later, the Vietnamese returned his remains, saying he
had died in captivity as a result of wounds received in the crash.

The U.S. gratefully accepted the remains without question.

Some ninety Americans were acknowledged by the Vietnamese to have died in
captivity, yet all their remains have not been returned. Others were known
prisoners, but the Vietnamese deny knowledge of them.

Since the war ended, over 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing,
prisoner or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S.
Government, yet it maintains there is not sufficient proof to act.

Wilmer Grubb was killed in captivity. That alone is sufficient proof to act,
yet we have done nothing to hold the Vietnamese accountable for their
atrocities.

Many authorities who have reviewed the largely-classified information
received by the government are convinced that Americans are still being held
alive today. But we do nothing to free them.

Newk Grubb was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the period
he was maintained Prisoner of War.

From: William H. Talley
Date: 15 May 1997

I would like to share some info about Newlin (Newk) Grubb.  I was in TAC
Recce from 1957-62 flying the RF-84 & RF-101 and at Laon AB, France from
1959-62. Newk came to Laon about a year before I left Recce for Air Tng.
Command.  Newk rotated back to Shaw AFB at the end of his tour.  Newk was
one of several recce pilots that went TDY to SEA to fly missions up North in
the 1965-66 time frame.  I flew my T-38 (fighter) to Shaw one Friday to talk
combat experience with some of my buddies who had been there. Our recce
missions had always been low level in the target area.  We usually flew at
some multiple of 60 knots (480, 540) to make drawing minute tic marks on the
map lines easier.  While talking to Newk about tactics, I asked him how fast
he flew in the target area.  He gave me an odd number like 560 or 570.  When
I asked him why that speed, Newk replied "Because it won't go any faster."

I see Evelyn Grubb every year at the Voodoo Reunions.
----------------------------
Question:  Did anyone ever hear of Capt. Grubb in any of our camps?

Bill Tschudy and HS Morgan were in C-3 at the Briarpatch in Sept 66 and
heard Grubb on CBS (camp bull shit).  He said something about his treatment
then said " They made me fly, they paid me to fly" and said it like he
really enjoyed being paid to fly.  Just heard the same statement two or
three times.

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

December 30, 2005

POW/MIA activist Grubb dies at 74

BY JOHN A. TORRES
FLORIDA TODAY

Evelyn Grubb's life changed forever Jan. 26, 1966, when her husband's plane
was shot down over North Vietnam.....

Contact Torres at 242-3649 or jtorres@flatoday.net

MORE INFO  http://veterantributes.org/TributeDetail.php?recordID=409

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