STONEBRAKER, KENNETH ARNOLD
Name: Kenneth Arnold Stonebraker
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 11th Tactical Recon Squadron, Udorn Airfield, Thailand
Date of Birth: 15 December 1938
Home City of Record: Hobart IN
Date of Loss: 28 October 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 172500N 1062700E (XE540261)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: RF4C
Refno: 1312
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: William H. Stroven (missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: Capt. William Stroven was the pilot and Capt. Kenneth Stonebraker
the navigator aboard an RF4C Phantom jet assigned a photo-reconnaissance
mission over North Vietnam on October 28, 1968. The aircraft departed its
base at Udorn Airfield, Thailand for its target, which included an
ammunition supply dump near Hanoi.
As the aircraft was over Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam, it was lost
from radar. No trace was ever found of the aircraft of its crew. The last
known location was over 200 miles from the intended target, and about 15
miles west of the city of Dong Hoi.
Stroven and Stonebraker were declared Missing in Action, and public record
reveals very little more about their fates. The U.S. Government determined
that there is a good chance that the Vietnamese know the fate of Stroven,
but are uncertain whether Stonebraker's fate is known.
Nearly 2500 Americans remain missing or otherwise unaccounted for in
Vietnam. Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports concerning Americans
still alive in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government.
Many authorities are completely convinced that hundreds of Americans are now
held captive.
One set of critics say that the U.S. has done little to address the issue of
live POWs, preferring the politically safer issue of remains return. Others
place the blame on the Vietnamese, for using the issue of POW/MIA to their
political advantage. Regardless of blame, no living American has returned
through the efforts of negotiations between the countries, and the reports
continue to pour in. Are Kenneth Stonebraker and William Stroven alive
somewhere in Southeast Asia wondering when their country will bring them
home? Are we doing enough to bring these men home?
-------------------------------------------------
[censored.94]
The following are QUOTES retyped from a supposed 8 page document (it
includes only 7 pages, numbered for 8). SO much of it is sanitized that
full reproduction is worthless!
08 DEC 1988
(sanitized)
Central Intelligence Agency
Memorandum For: Defense Intelligence Agency
DAM Assisitant Deputy Director for Military Liaison
Attnetion: Mr. John Keihm
Subject: Socialist Republic of Vietnam Manipulation of the POW/MIA Issue
1
1.
... that the details of thses two case may be of considerable interst
to DIA and other members of the intelligence community...
2. ...
Among the photographs were photos of STONEBRAKER an authentic MIA...
provided.....master list of all MIA remains currently being held by
the SRV in warehouse storage......
2
4....we have obtained hard and possibly exploitable evidence of SRV
official knowledge of POW.MIA remains in their possession....includes
the photograph of Captain Stonebraker's identifaication card and the
tape recorded statements of XXXX on the SRV master list....
316/06977-88
5
(NOTE: not sanitized are deals sought to sell remains and following
info)
On 19 November 1988....provided photographs of personal effects....
....during the war....the self-defense guerrillas had collected and
stored away.....complete... skeletal... remains of six U.S. pilots shot
down in their area.....the photographs were of poor quality and were
largely unusable...Several...were of the military identification card of
Captain Kenneth Arnold Stonebraker, dob 25 December 1938 Social Security
number 316-36-5397. The ID card was issued 4 January 1968. JCRC records
show Captain Stonebraker was MIA in North Vietnam on a reconnaissance
mission in 1968.....
7
(1/2 of page sanitized)
....a former U.S. Special Forces Green Beret Lieutenant Colonel named
Armstrong "Lion" Queer and his deputy Major Jack XXXX are living in the
Central Highlands under the protection of 21 montegnard
guards.....wishes to establish contact with the U.S.
Government....unwilling to trust any Vietnamese......
Robert J. Torronics (NOTE: copy poor - spelling NOT CLEAR)
... copy of dog tags sent to us in a letter..... (balance of paragraph
sanitized)
8
c) Denry Ball (or Ball Denry)
A U.S. MIA named Denry Ball or Ball Denry was smuggled out of Vietnam in
1986-87 by anti-communist South Vietnamese resisitance forces. Ball
travelled initially to Bangkok and then on to the U.S. Ball's home is in
Philidelphia, Pennsylvania, where he is presumably now living......(
rest of page sanitized.)
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