L/CPL Bruce Wayne Staehli...India Co 3rd Bn 9th Marines 30 April 1968
STAEHLI, BRUCE WAYNE
Name: Bruce Wayne Staehli
Rank/Branch: Lance Corporal/USMC
Unit: l/3/9 3 MAR DIV
Date of Birth: 24 September 1948
Home City of Record: Crow Point, IN
Loss Date: 30 April 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 164930N 1070200E
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Others In Incident: none missing
Refno: 1152
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: Bruce Staehli was a Marine in Vietnam when the fighting was intense.
His Marine brothers at Khe Sanh had fought the Vietnamese in one of the bloodiest battles of the war earlier in the year, while the Marines at Hue were fighting the enemy in the streets.
By April, the Marines at Khe Sanh had finished operation Pegasus and had embarked on a series of missions called Scotland II to search and clear the area of enemy presence.
It was perhaps on such a mission that Bruce Staehli disappeared on April 30, 1968, near the city of Dong Ha, South Vietnam.
Dong Ha is only a few miles from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and less than 30 miles northeast of Khe Sanh.
Staehli is the only missing man from the action that day,
and there is good reason to believe the enemy knows his fate.
He may have been captured.
When American prisoners were released 5 years later, the Staehli family was shocked and disappointed that their son was not one of them.
Experts say there were hundreds expected to be released who were not.
Since the end of American involvement in Vietnam, thousands of reports of Americans still held captive in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government. Official policy states that there is not enough proof to act, but that presumably, one or more American is held.
Critics of that policy, including individuals in government, say the proof is there, but that no one is willing to pay the price of freedom for these captive Americans.
If one of them is Bruce Staehli.
What must he be thinking of us?
This is unacceptable;
It was perhaps on such a mission that Bruce Staehli disappeared on April 30, 1968, near the city of Dong Ha, South Vietnam.
There must be an after action report when he was first listed as Missing In Action.
He just disappeared from the face of the earth.
And there's no account of the how?
From a graphic of POW/MIA's;
"I was prepared to FIGHT,
I was prepared to be WOUNDED,
I was prepared to be CAPTURED,
I was even prepared to DIE,
But,
I was NOT prepared to be ABANDONED!"
As long as some of us remain alive,
We will seek an accounting of all those listed as
POW/MIA
A Nation that sends it youth to fight in her name,
Must also account for what happen to them.
Some may never be accounted for.
But we MUST NEVER GIVE UP HOPE!!!
