ROBERT JAMES THOMAS
Remains Returned 780823
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force, co-pilot
Unit: 340th Bombardment Squadron, Anderson AFB
Date of Birth: 19 December 1948
Home City of Record: Miami FL
Date of Loss: December 18 1972
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 21138N 1054247E (WJ740473)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: B52G
Other Personnel in Incident: Walter L. Ferguson;
Donald L. Rissi (both remains returned); Richard
E. Johnson; Richard T. Simpson; Robert G. Certain
(all released POWs)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15
March 1991 from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published
sources including "Linebacker" by Karl J. Eschmann.
Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK.
REMARKS: REMS RET MONTG HANOI 780823
SYNOPSIS: Frustrated by problems in negotiating a
peace settlement, and pressured by a Congress and
public wanting an immediate end to American
involvement in Vietnam, President Nixon ordered the
most concentrated air offensive of the war - known
as Linebacker II - in December 1972. During the
offensive, sometimes called the "Christmas
bombings," 40,000 tons of bombs were dropped,
primarily over the area between Hanoi and Haiphong.
White House Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler said
that the bombing would end only when all U.S. POWs
were released and an internationally recognized
cease-fire was in force. On the first day of
Linebacker II, December 18, 129 B52s arrived over
Hanoi in three waves, four to five hours apart.
They attacked the airfields at Hoa Lac, Kep and
Phuc Yen, the Kinh No complex and the Yen Vien
railyards. The aircraft flew in tight cells of
three to maximize the mutual support benefits of
their ECM equipment and flew straight and level to
stabilize the bombing computers and ensure that all
bombs fell on the military targets and not in
civilian areas. The pilots of the early missions
reported that "wall-to-wall SAMS" surrounded
Hanoi as they neared its outskirts. The first
night of bombing, December 18, saw the
operation's first casualties. Charcoal 01, a B52G,
flown by LtCol. Donald L. Rissi. The crew,
attached to the 340th Bombardment Squadron at
Anderson AFB Guam, had been scheduled to return
home to Blytheville AFB, Arkansas, two weeks
earlier. But due to a snowstorm, their replacement
crew from Loring AFB, Maine, was too late in
arriving to transition to a combat-ready status.
So, instead of being at home, the Charcoal 01 crew
met its tragic fate over North Vietnam. The crew
of the aircraft included its pilot and commander,
LTCOL Donald L. Rissi and crewmen Maj. Richard E.
Johnson, the radar navigator; Capt. Richard T.
Simpson, electronics warfare officer; Capt. Robert
G. Certain, the navigator; 1Lt. Robert J. Thomas,
the co-pilot; and Sgt. Walter L.Ferguson, the
gunner. Just seconds to reaching the bomb-release
point over the Yen Vien rail yards, B52G Charcoal
01 was hit simultaneously by two SAMs. Less than
a minute later the aircraft nosed down, crashed
and exploded ten miles northwest of Hanoi. It was
the first casualty of the LINEBACKER II operation,
and its fate would be shared by fourteen other
crews in the next eleven nights of combat.
Certain, Simpson and Johnson were captured and
shown the bodies of the other crew members.
Certain, Simpson and Johnson were held prisoner
in Hanoi until March 29, 1973, when they were
released in Operation Homecoming. Six years
later, the bodies of Rissi, Thomas and Ferguson
were returned to U.S. control by the Vietnamese.
The Christmas Bombings, despite press accounts to
the contrary, were of the most precise the world
had seen. Pilots involved in the immense series
of strikes generally agree that the strikes
against anti-aircraft and strategic targets was
so successful that the U.S. "could have taken the
entire country of Vietnam by inserting an average
Boy Scout troop in Hanoi and marching it
southward." To achieve this precision bombing,
the Pentagon deemed it necessary to maintain a
regular flight path. For many missions, the
predictable B52 strikes were anticipated and
prepared for by the North Vietnamese. Later,
however, flight paths were altered and attrition
all but eliminated any hostile threat from the
ground. The survival rate of the B52 crews downed
was surprisingly high, and many were released in
1973. Many others were known to survive the crash
of the aircraft, only to disappear. Reports mount
that have convinced many authorities that
Americans are still held captive in Southeast
Asia. Although the crew of Charcoal 01 is
accounted for, many others involved in the
LINEBACKER operations are not. There is every
reason to believe some of them could be among
those still alive today. It's time we found them
Robert Thomas was the father of Kansas City
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