BEDNAREK, JOHNATHAN BRUCE
Remains Returned December 1988
Name: Johnathan Bruce Bednarek
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit: 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron, Da Nang, South Vietnam
Date of Birth: 18 October 1948
Home City of Record: Greenlawn NY
Date of Loss: 18 May 1972
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 212300N 1061700E (XJ330649)
Status in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F4D
Refno: 1858
Other Personnel in Incident: Wesley D. Ratzel (missing)
REMARKS: PROB DEAD NHAN DAN
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 2020.
SYNOPSIS: Johnathan B. Bednarek flew as backseater to pilot Wesley Ratzel on
an F4D Phantom fighter/bomber jet. The team was given a mission over North
Vietnam on May 18, 1972 from which they would not return. They were lost
near the city of Kep in Ha Bac Province, North Vietnam, an area which had
been the target of American offensive in recent weeks together with targets
in and around Hanoi and Haiphong. A railroad leading to China by which arms
and materiel could be brought into Vietnam went right through the city of
Kep. This railroad may have been Bednarek and Ratzel's target that day.
An article in Nhan Dan, a Vietnamese publication, referred to a dead
American pilot. This article was correlated to Johnathan Bednarek. Defense
Department notations for Ratzel state that he was a "no show" in the Hanoi
POW camp system, indicating that the article did not state he died in the
crash, and that the possibility existed that he was a prisoner. Both men
were placed in a Missing In Action status.
When American POWs were released in 1973, Bednarek and Ratzel were not among
them. The Vietnamese, who had pledged in Paris earlier in the year to
release all American POWs and account for as many as possible of the
missing, denied any knowledge of either Ratzel or Bednarek.
By the end of 1988, the U.S. had received over 8,000 reports relating to
Americans missing in Southeast Asia. Many of them referred to U.S. POWs
still alive in captivity. The Bednarek and Ratzel families agonized between
thoughts that their men might be dead - or among those who were alive.
In December 1988, the Vietnamese "discovered" the remains of Wesley Ratzel
and Johnathan Bednarek and returned them to U.S. control. This fine flying
team has come home at last. The reports continue to flow in, reaching nearly
10,000 in number by mid-1989, and families are still in anguish, and
American POWs are dying in hopeless despair in enemy hands.
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01/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000uar1KEAQ
On June 1, 1989, the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii (CILH,
now DPAA) identified the remains of Captain Jonathan Bruce
Bednarek, missing from the Vietnam War.
Captain Bednarek joined the U.S. Air Force from New York and was
a member of the 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron. On May 18,
1972, he was the avigator aboard an F-4D Phantom II (serial
number 66-7612) on a combat mission over Kep Airfield in
Vietnam. Captain Bednarek's aircraft was shot down by enemy
aircraft during the mission, and Capt Bednarek was killed in the
crash. Immediate search efforts failed to locate the Phantom's
crew. In December 1988, the Vietnamese government returned Capt
Bednarek's remains to U.S. custody, with forensic analysis
confirming the identification shortly thereafter.
Captain Bednarek is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at
the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.