CRAMER, DONALD MARTIN

Name: Donald Martin Cramer
Rank/Branch: W2/US Army
Unit: C Troop, 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division
Date of Birth: 12 January 1946 (Columbus OH)
Home City of Record: St. Louis MO
Date of Loss: 05 January 1971
Country of Loss: South Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 161657N 1073102E (ZD060160)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: AH1G
Refno: 1689
Other Personnel in Incident: SP4 Ronnie Vago Rogers (killed, body recovered)

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 in 1998.

SYNOPSIS: At 0210 hours on January 5, 1971, CW2 Donald M. Cramer, pilot of
an AH1G (tail #67-16083), departed the Hue/Phu Bai Airfield on a training
flight mission with SP4 Ronnie V. Rogers aboard. No contact was established
after takeoff. When the aircraft failed to return within a reasonable time,
efforts were made to establish radio contact. After checking all airfields
and contact bases in the area, an aerial search was initiated at 1640 hours,
and lasted until dark.

On January 8, SP4 Roger's body was found on the beach. The search shifted
primarily into the coastline areas until about January 20, with no sightings
of the aircraft or of CW2 Cramer.

Because it was determined that Rogers had drowned, it was assumed that the
aircraft departed its destination (a fire base), and crashed into the South
China Sea. CW2 Cramer was never found. He was listed Missing in Action.

Whether Cramer drowned as Rogers did on January 5, 1971, may never be
learned. The U.S. Army, believing there was a chance he survived, did not
declare him officially dead for over four years, and then only in general
administrative "presumptive findings of death" which were sought for all
missing personnel.

As the years pass, and more and more reports are received indicating that
many Americans are still alive in Southeast Asia, one must wonder if CW2
Cramer is one of those said to be alive. If he is, what must he be thinking
of us?

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