PIETSCH, ROBERT EDWARD

Name: Robert Edward Pietsch
Rank/Branch: Lt. Colonel USAF
Unit:
Date of Birth: 24 December 1936
Home City of Record: Cleveland OH   (family in Pittsburgh PA)
Loss Date: 30 April 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 165605N 1055925E
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: A26A
Refno: 1151

Source: Compiled 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 in 1998.

Other Personnel In Incident: Louis Guillermin (missing)

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: Lt.Colonel Robert Pietsch and Maj. Luis Guillermin were flying an
A26A aircraft over Laos when their plane was downed in Savannakhet Province,
Laos.  Their last known location was about 10 miles east of the city of Ban
Muong Sen.

The A26A was redesignated B-26 following World War II and then given its
original classification as an attack plane.  After some resesigning for
counterinsurgency warfare and changes in armament, the craft was rechris-
tened A-26A.  The aircraft could remain on station for a long time,
patiently searching ot and attacking an enemy concealed by jungle in night
or bad weather.

The fates of Pietsch and Guillermin are unknown.  There are among nearly 600
Americans who disappeared in America's "secret war" in Laos who never
returned.  There is ample reason to believe that the Vietnamese and/or the
Communist Lao know what happened to Guillermin and Pietsch on April 30,
1968.

There have been over 5000 reports given to the U.S. Government relating to
Americans held captive in Southeast Asia.  The U.S. has, thus far, been
unable to find the formula to bring them home.  One of them could be Robert
E. Pietsch.