In Memory of My Uncle, Robert Franklin Coady

My Uncle Robby served the United States of America as a Major in the US Air Force. He was a Skyraider pilot during the Vietnam War.  My uncle was a parachuting and survival instructor, a graduate of The Citadel, a Toastmaster, a loving brother and devoted father.   He is on the top row, third from the left.

In 1969 Uncle Robby (who everyone called "Wild Bill") went Missing in Action.  His body has never been found – 30 years later a person “supposedly” found items belonging to my uncle at the crash site, but these were never produced for inspection.  (Mind you the crash site was supposedly picked apart off and on for decades.  His parachute was never even found!)  Several POWs reported my uncle as being in prison camps with them.  He was a higher ranking officer, flew reconnaissance and rescue missions – some have said because of this he was one of the many who were handed over to the Soviets and taken to Siberia.  We will probably never know – although my Aunt Judy will never give up searching for answers. 

As I mentioned, Uncle Robby was a Skyraider.  The Skyraider pilots flew the missions no one else wanted – but the ones that everyone prayed would be flown when they were shot down and needing rescue.  Skyraiders rescued THOUSANDS of downed Navy and Air Force pilots. 

This is from his biography at Arlington National Cemetery:

At 0523 hours on 18 January 1969, then Captain Robert F. Coady was the pilot of an A1H Skyraider, call sign "Sandy 10," that departed Nakhon Phanom as the #2 aircraft in a flight of two. Capt. Coady was operating as the low element in a high/low flight formation conducting a first light search and recovery (SAR) mission to pick up the 2-man crew of "Stormy 02," an F-4D that was shot down the afternoon before. The Phantom crew was attacking an active 37mm anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) site when it was struck by AAA fire from that gun emplacement. Their target was located in rugged jungle covered mountains approximately 23 miles west-northwest of Khe Sanh, South Vietnam; 3 miles southeast of Muang Xepon, and 7 miles west of Tchepone, Savannakhet Province, Laos.

At 0625 hours on 18 January, the co-pilot of Stormy 02 made radio contact with Sandy flight. Because of clouds and fog over the survivor's position, the rescue operation was delayed until 0900 hours. By that time the weather cleared with only a few scattered clouds left and visibility of 7 miles. After Sandy 09 and Sandy 10 made their first pass over his location, Lt. Fegan, the downed co-pilot, advised the Sandy pilots that there was automatic weapons fire coming from the east and southeast of him. Further, repeated weapons fire was noted on each subsequent pass over the survivor's position. Sandy 09 received 7 hits from small arms fire. Capt. Coady was working the same area and at the same altitude as the flight leader, and was probably hit at the same time by the same gunners.

According to Sandy 09, at 0932 hours he heard an unidentified radio call saying, "What in the world is that?" Looking around while pulling off the target, Sandy 09 observed a dust cloud, a white phosphorous cloud and smoke from burning gasoline. The entire length from dust to smoke was approximately 125 yards. The dust cloud from the crash path was located in a small jungle clearing that then penetrated the jungle growth from an easterly heading. Sandy 09 saw the aircraft wreckage approximately 5 miles southeast of Muang Xepon and 5 ½ miles west of Tchepone. However, he saw no parachute in the confusion, dust and smoke. He tried to raise Capt. Coady on the radio, but was not able to establish contact. SAR efforts continued throughout the day, but when no trace of Robert Coady was found he was immediately listed Missing in Action. During the search operation, Lt. Fegan was rescued by a SAR helicopter. The pilot of the Phantom, Capt. Victor A. Smith, was not located and subsequently he was also listed Missing in Action.

~o~
From other government reports:

Upon his early release from prison on 5 August 1969, 1st Lt. Wesley L. Rumble reported having heard of a POW named either "Bill Cody or Cote," but never personally saw a POW with that name and could provide no other information about that individual. This information was provided to Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) personnel during his debriefing on 3 October 1969 and again to the State Department in his debriefing by their personnel on 25 September 1969. In 1978, the US Air Force correlated this information to Robert T. Coady.

In 1971, the families of men missing throughout Southeast Asia were shown communist propaganda films in an attempt to identify prisoners who remained unidentified. Capt. Coady's sister viewed a film depicting US POWs in North Vietnam during Christmas 1969. In addition to positively identifying one of the men in this film as her brother, she also identified another picture in a post-capture photo album shown to her by US Air Force casualty personnel as him.

In July 1992, members of the Joint Task Force for Full Accounting (JTFFA) investigated Capt. Coady's suspected crash site. While in the area of loss, US team members interviewed witnesses concerning the circumstances of the crash. One source described having recovered a dogtag bearing Robert Coady's name in 1990 along with other personal artifacts while scavenging for metal at the site. However, the witness did not produce any of those items for the team member to see and examine. Also during this trip to the crash site, the team found some pilot related items and surface wreckage that permitted a tentative correlation of this site to Robert Coady's aircraft.

Robert Coady is among nearly 600 Americans who disappeared in Laos. Many of these men were known to be alive on the ground. The Laotians admitted holding "tens of tens" of American Prisoners of War, but these men were never negotiated for either by direct negotiation between our countries or through the Paris Peace Accords which ended the War in Vietnam since Laos was not a party to that agreement.

If Robert Coady died in the loss of his aircraft, he has the right to have his remains returned to his family, friends and country. However, if he survived, he most certainly would have been captured and his fate, like that of other Americans who remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, could be quite different.

Since the end of the Vietnam War well over 21,000 reports of American prisoners, missing and otherwise unaccounted for have been received by our government. Many of these reports document LIVE America Prisoners of War remaining captive throughout Southeast Asia TODAY.

Pilots in Vietnam and Laos were called upon to fly in many dangerous circumstances, and they were prepared to be wounded, killed or captured. It probably never occurred to them that they could be abandoned by the country they so proudly served.

~o~

Name: Robert Franklin Coady  

Rank/Branch: Major/US Air Force   
Unit: 602nd Special Operations Squadron,
Nakhon Phanom Airfield, Thailand   
Date of Birth: 11 September 1939  
Home of Record: New Orleans, LA  
Date of Loss: 18 January 1969 
Country of Loss: Laos  
~o~

My uncle is subject of a chapter or two in George Marrett’s book, Cheating Death: Combat Air Rescues in Vietnam and Laos.  Apparently, in the nine flights the two took part in together, my uncle was having a series of crazy and dangerous malfunctions and twists of fate.  As if his number was up and that was all there was to it. 

George Marrett sent me a copy of his book three years ago.  This is how he inscribed it:

Dear Glynis,

Your Uncle Robby was “Wild Bill” Coady to me.  He was a very special friend and I miss him and the others who gave their lives for another person.  Best Regards, George Marrett  “Think where man’s glory most begins and say—my glory was that I had such friends.” Yeats.

I am so grateful to Mr. Marrett for immortalizing my uncle in the pages of his book so that his bravery will ever live on.

What song could be more appropriate than Trace Adkin's "Arlington."  Funny thing, my uncle's name is on The Wall...but there never has been a body to bury at Arlington.