ROBERT BYRON FULLER
Unit: Attack Squadron 76, USS BON HOMME RICHARD
Date of Birth: 23 November 1927
Home City of Record: Jacksonville FL
Date of Loss: 14 July 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 204000N 1060200E (XH076854)
Status (in 1973): Released POW
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A4C
Other Personnel in Incident: none
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 Jun
1990 from one or more of the following: raw data
from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources,
interviews, and updated 09 March 1997 by the
P.O.W. NETWORK with material provided by Ret.
Admiral Robert Fuller, USN.
REMARKS: 730304 RELSD BY DRV
SYNOPSIS: The USS BON HOMME RICHARD (CVA 31) saw
early Vietnam war action. A World War II Essex-
class carrier, she was on station participating
in combat action against the Communists as early
as August 1964. Her aircraft carried the first
Walleye missiles when they were introduced in 1967.
In November 1970, the "Bonnie Dick" completed its
sixth combat deployment and was scheduled for
decommissioning by mid-1971.
One of the aircraft that launched from the decks
of the BON HOMME RICHARD was the Douglas Aircraft
A4 Skyhawk. The Skyhawk was intended to provide
the Navy and Marine Corps with an inexpensive,
lightweight attack and ground support aircraft.
The design emphasized low-speed control and
stability during take-off and landing as well as
strength enough for catapult launch and carrier
landings. The plane was so compact that it did not
need folding wings for aboardship storage and
handling. In spite of its diminutive size, the A4
packed a devastating punch and performed well where
speed and maneuverability were essential.
The Spirits of VA76, assigned to Air Wing 21,
reached the coastal waters of Vietnam in January
1967. As the monsoon season faded, the air war's
intensity rapidly ballooned and sites in North
Vietnam that previously had been off-limits were
opened up for U.S. air strikes.
CDR Robert B. Fuller was a Skyhawk pilot and the
commanding officer of Attack Squadron 76 onboard
the BON HOMME RICHARD. On July 14, 1967, he
launched in his A4C on a mission near the city of
Hun Yen in Hai Hung Province, North Vietnam.
During the mission, as he was just northwest of
the city, Fuller's aircraft was shot down. He
ejected from the aircraft and was captured.
During captivity he was subjected to torture by
ropes, leg irons and 25 months in solitary
confinement. Fuller spent sixty-eight months in
captivity and was finally released on March 4,
1973 in Operation Homecoming.
Byron Fuller was one of the lucky ones. For
hundreds of others, however, simple answers are
not possible. Adding to the torment of nearly
10,000 reports relating to Americans missing in
Southeast Asia is the certain knowledge that some
Americans who were known to be prisoners of war
were not released at the end of the war. Others
were suspected to be prisoners, and still others
were in radio contact with would-be rescuers when
last seen alive. Many were known to have survived
their loss incidents, only to disappear without a
The problem of Americans still missing torments
not only the families of those who are missing,
but the men who fought by their sides, and those
in the general public who realize the full
implication of leaving men unaccounted for at the
end of a war. Tragically, many authorities
believe there are hundreds of Americans still
alive in captivity in Southeast Asia today. What
must they be thinking of us? What will our next
generation say if called to fight if we are
unable to bring these men home from Southeast
During the period he was a prisoner of war Robert
B. Fuller was promoted to the rank of Captain.
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977
Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret),
Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor P.O.W. Publications,
10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602
Text is reproduced as found in the original
publication (including date and spelling errors).
UPDATE - 09/95 by the P.O.W. NETWORK, Skidmore, MO
ROBERT B. FULLER
Captain - United States Navy
Shot Down: July 14, 1967
Released: March 4, 1973
Born 23 November 1927 in Quitman, Mississippi.
Attended first and second grades in Atlanta,
Georgia; third through tenth grades in Jacksonville,
Florida. Graduated from Emory at Oxford, Oxford,
Georgia in 1945. Enlisted in the U. S. Navy and
served one year on active duty aboard USS Waldron
(DD-699). Upon discharge returned to Emory at
Oxford for one year of college. Entered the U. S.
Naval Academy in 1947 and graduated in June 1951
and commissioned an Ensign, U. S. Navy. After
graduation remained at the Academy during the
summer to indoctrinate the incoming plebes.
Ordered to flight training and received wings on
7 November 1952. First squadron assignment was
VF-192 Moffett Field, flying F9F-5 Panther Jets.
First shore assignment was CIC School at Glynco,
Georgia. Second sea tour was Aide and Flag
Lieutenant to Commander Carrier Division Seven,
then as Operations Officer of VA-SS homeported at
NAS Lemoore flying A4's. Second shore assignment
was to the Washington area assigned to the Bureau
of Naval Personnel as a detailer in the Aviation
Officer assignment branch. This was followed by
attendance at the Armed Forces Staff College,
Norfolk, Virginia, then to VA-44 Cecil Field as
Final tour of duty was to VA-76 at Lemoore as
Executive Officer flying A-4's Ordered as
Commanding Of Officer VA-76 in December 1966.
Deployed as part of Air Wing Twenty One embarked
in the USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31). Flew first
combat mission over North Vietnam on 26 February
1967 and was shot down on one hundred tenth
Married to the former Mary Anne McGinley from
Jacksonville, Florida. Their four children are Bob,
Jr.18, Mary Jane 16, Susan 15, and Peggy 13.
Awarded: Silver Star Medal, 4 Distinguished Flying
Crosses, 11 Air Medals, 2 Navy Commendation Medals
with Combat V, Combat Action Ribbon, Navy Unit
Commendation, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, World
War II Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Medal (with
Asian Area Clasp), National Defense Service Medal
(with Bronze Star), Korean Service Medal, Armed
Forces Expeditionary Medal (with Bronze Star),
Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Air
Gallantry Cross (with Silver Wings), Korean
Presidential Unit Citation, Republic of Vietnam
Armed Forces Meritorius Unit Citation (Gallantry
Cross Medal Color with Palm), United Nations
Service Medal, and Republic of Vietnam Campaign
My statement will be the speech I delivered upon
arrival at Naval Air Station, Jacksonville on the
night of 8 March 1973. It is as follows:
"America! My America! How beautiful you are! I
stand here tonight as a free man thanks to the
American people, the love and devotion of my
darling wife and mother, and to our great
March 1997
Robert Fuller retired from the United States Navy
as a Rear Admiral in 1982. He and Mary Anne still
reside in Florida. Robert still flys, and enjoys
RVing. He and Mary Ann have 4 children and 7
grandchildren.
------------------
Florida Times Union
Monday, August 9, 1999
Ex-POW missing no more
Bracelet wearer finds him just across town
By P. Douglas Filaroski
Times-Union staff writer
As a young woman, Barbara Fiebelkorn thought often
about the man whose name was engraved on a POW
bracelet she wore. She imagined possible horrors, but
But the years passed. The Vietnam War ended. And many
prisoners of war came home.
Unable to learn of her soldier's fate, Fiebelkorn took
off the bracelet and eventually resigned herself to
setting aside the nagging question:
Whatever happened to Capt. Byron Fuller?
Twenty-five years went by. Fiebelkorn worked and raised
two children. In 1996, her husband's job transfer
moved Fiebelkorn outside Chicago for the first time
and eventually brought her to Jacksonville.
One day, she was searching through a POW site on the
Internet for information on a family member when a
thought occurred to her: Why not look for the name on
that silver bracelet she still kept in her jewelry
''She was in the computer room, and she came out
yelling, 'I found him! I found him!' '' Doug
Fiebelkorn says of his wife's reaction a week ago.
Capt. Byron Fuller not only lived, he had retired
after a distinguished career to his hometown of
''I couldn't believe it,'' Barbara Fiebelkorn said. ''
I not only found him, but he was living right across
town from me. It was kind of weird.'' Fate must have
played a role, she said. The two met yesterday in the
living room of Fuller's home at South Jacksonville
Beach, where Fiebelkorn was finally able to hand
Fuller the bracelet and get answers to her questions.
''I'm glad to be able to close the loop for her,''
Fuller said. Turns out as a 39-year-old Navy airman,
Fuller had been flying a bombing run south of Hanoi in
his A-4 Skyhawk fighter plane one steamy July day in
1967 when his plane was suddenly hit by gunfire.
It locked in a tight downward spiral, and Fuller ejected,
landing unconscious in a rice paddy, with a broken
shoulder, a broken hand, a dislocated knee and a
For six years, the Hoa Lo Prison, dubbed the ''Hanoi
Hilton,'' was Fuller's home. North Vietnamese soldiers
tortured and interrogated him -- one time for seven days
It would be two years before his wife, Mary Anne,
would know he was alive, and six years before he
returned home to his family in Jacksonville.
The retired Navy admiral, now 71, looked fit as he
talked to Fiebelhorn about his 37-year military career.
Despite his ordeal, Fuller returned to active duty and
reached the rank of rear admiral in command of aircraft
carrier USS America in 1976.
Fiebelkorn, a railroad worker who remarried 13 years
ago, listened intently to every detail, marveling at the
medals hanging on her soldier's walls.
Fiebelkorn was interested to learn that Fuller's plane,
which bears his name outside the cockpit, is on display
at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
He stood in for actor William Holden as the pilot of an
F-9F Panther jet in the movie The Bridges at Toko-Ri.
''I'm going to have to get that movie now,'' Fiebelkorn
After years of wondering, it was a relief to know Fuller
had not only survived, but flourished.
She had worn his bracelet every Memorial Day and Veterans
Day, not knowing which was the appropriate occasion.
''I guess I won't have to wonder anymore,'' she said. ''He's
a remarkable man. It's so great to know he went on to do so
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