STROBRIDGE, RODNEY LYNN

Name: Rodney Lynn Strobridge
Rank/Branch: O3/US Army
Unit: Battery F, 79th Artillery Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division
Date of Birth: 22 May 1941 (Denver CO)
Home City of Record: Torrance CA
Date of Loss: 11 May 1972
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 113825N 1063639E (XT766872)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: AH1G
Other Personnel in Incident: Robert J. Williams (missing)

REMARKS:

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.
                                                   
SYNOPSIS: On May 11, 1972, Capt. Robert J. Williams, pilot, and Capt. Rodney
L. Strobridge, co-pilot, were flying an AH1G helicopter (tail #69-15009), as
wingmen in a flight of three AH1G helicopters launched to support allied
forces at An Loc, in Binh Long Province, South Vietnam.

While pulling off the target, the aircraft was hit by enemy ground fire.
Something had hit near the tail boom, and it was severed from the fusilage.
The aircraft went into a flat spin and crashed. It was believed that a SAM
(surface to air missile) had hit the aircraft because of the immediate
separation of the tail boom.

Capt. Williams' last radio transmission was, "Oh, my God!"

No further radio contact was made with Williams and Strobridge. No one saw
the helicopter hit the ground. Both men were thought to have died in the
crash of their aircraft.

A refugee later reported that while serving in the 21st Division Engineers
at An Loc, he discovered the skeletal remains of an American. The U.S. Army
believes this could have been Williams or Strobridge, but the remains have
never been recovered.

According to witnesses, Williams and Strobridge are almost certainly dead.
Tragically, their families have no grave holding their bodies to visit.
Their remains are on enemy soil and not buried in their homeland. Even more
tragically, evidence mounts that hundreds of Americans are still alive, held
captive in Southeast Asia. What must they be thinking of us?

                                                [nbcn414.98 04/26/98]
From: Lynn O'Shea
Here is a transcript of the NBC story on the identity of the Vietnam
Unknown.  While the National Alliance of Families does not endorse the
use of mt-DNA testing as a primary means of identification, we urge you
to visit the web site shown below.  We urge you to vote for the families
right to know. (Please note: as bad a typist as I am errors in the story
regarding the family names are MSNBC, not mine)

http://www/msnbc.com/news/160869.asp

DNA testing may make it possible to identify the remains of the Vietnam
War serviceman buried there.Tomb of unknown may really be known Vietnam
remains may be identifiable


By Jim Miklaszewski

NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON, April 24 

The Tomb of the Unknowns is the U.S. military' most sacred shrine, but
there's a strong possibility that the Vietnam veteran buried there may
not be unknown after all. After a lengthy investigation, Department of
Defense officials appear ready to open the tomb to try to identify the
remains.

PENTAGON SOURCES tell NBC News it's almost certain the Tomb of the
Unknowns will be opened and the remains of the Vietnam Veteran  exhumed
for DNA testing.

In fact, strong evidence indicates the remains may be of one of  two
American pilots killed in action in Vietnam 26 years ago Air Force pilot
Michael Joseph Blase or Army Capt. Rodney Strobridge.

For 26 years Blaze's family was never told his remains may have been
recovered. His sister, Pat Blase, says their mother deserves to know.
That is her son, says Blase. She gave him up once. I don't believe she
has to give him up again.

Althea Stobridge was only recently told it could be her son in the tomb.
People lose their children but they've got a body, says Stobridge. I
lose mine and I've got nothing. After 26 years, she says, 
she doesn't need to know.

Blase and Strobridge were shot down and killed only two miles apart near
An Loc on the same day in 1972. Six months, later a partial set of
remains and Blaze's ID card were recovered. Should the military do DNA
testing on theTomb of the Unknowns?

"I know it was Michael Joseph Blase who we recovered," says Bill Parcel,
who was an Army colonel at An Loc. But six years later, the Army morgue
at the Central Identification lab in Hawaii found that the blood type
and bones were a closer match to Strobridge.

David Kelly was a casualty analyst for the military lab. "It was
strongly felt the remains were portions of Strobridge, not Blase," he
says. 

But without a positive ID, military officials in Washington designated
the remains unidentified. In 1984, in an elaborate ceremony, those same
remains were buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns.

Today, there's a good chance that modern DNA technology could identify
the remains. Dr. Mitchell Holland and other experts at the Armed Forces
DNA Laboratory in Rockville, Md., are confident they can solve the
mystery. "There's a strong likelihood that if we were asked, we would be
able to get a result from these remains," Holland says.

But after all these years, Althea Strobridge says she doesn't need to
know if it's her son in the tomb. "I just know that he's dead. Still
dead," she says.

The Blazes want the tomb reopened. "We believe it is him," says Pat
Blase. "If it comes back that it's not him, we will still know the
truth."

The worst case is that DNA testing would still be inconclusive. Whatever
the outcome, today's science makes it unlikely there will ever be
another U.S. combat causality classified as unknown.