Anderson, Robert Eugene

Data Sources - Air Force Manual No. 200-25A, Department of the Air Force, Washington, October 16, 1961  page 1. Sanitized copy. National Archives KOREAN Conflict Casualty File (KCCF) 1950-1954.

                                       

03/92 -- Korea, and the men yet to be accounted for -- the "official list" --  is a list of U.S. servicemen known to have been held as prisoners of war by the red Chinese and North Koreans from the Korean War but not released or accounted for by the communists, as released on May 27, 1957 at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Far East and Pacific by the Department of Defense.

The lists, the printed minutes of the May 27, 1957 hearing and the "sense of congress" resolution were subsequently buried in the archives. The original list had 450 names compiled from American POWS who were repatriated by the Reds, as well as from photographs released by the Reds, Chinese radio propaganda broadcasts, and letters written home by captured men. The "revised" list was narrowed down in august of 1961 to 389 men, and all were arbitrarily declared dead by the military services, the USG still lists them as "unaccounted for".

Names and ranks only were released at the time, and printed in "The Spotlight" on August 27, 1979, along with the above information and background. Further information has been compiled by the P.O.W. Network from the Hawaii POW/MIA Korean Memorial records, National Archives documentation, and public United States Air Force documentation, and changes made to the original published information. (FEBRUARY 1992)
 

Robert Anderson is listed on the "HONOR ROLL OF FORGOTTEN AMERICANS" yet is noted as having died "while missing" by the National Archive.
https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000Ie6RgEAJ

03/11/2021

 Member  1ST LT ROBERT EUGENE ANDERSON
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Member Profiles
  • KOREAN WAR
  • UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
  • Unaccounted For

First Lieutenant Robert Eugene Anderson entered the U.S. Air Force from Arkansas and served with the 154th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 136th Fighter-Bomber Group. On May 21, 1952, he piloted an F-84D Thunderjet (tail number 48-758) that took off from Taegu Air Base in the number four position in a flight of fighters on a nighttime rail cutting mission near Samdan-dong, North Korea. The flight completed the mission and began a low altitude withdrawal from the area that the flight leader coordinated over the radio. During the withdrawal, 1st Lt Anderson's aircraft crashed into a small hill. The flight circled the crash site, but could not locate any signs of his survival. After the war, U.S. personnel obtained Soviet records that stated that 1st Lt Anderson's F-84D had been shot down by Soviet air defenses and his body had been buried by local civilians. 1st Lt Anderson's remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, First Lieutenant Anderson is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual's case to be in the analytical category of Deferred.

If you are a family member of this serviceman, DPAA can provide you with additional information and analysis of your case. Please contact your casualty office representative.