RYAN, WILLIAM CORNELIUS JR.

Remains returned, Identified 01/06/2017



Name: William Cornelius Ryan Jr.
Branch/Rank: United States Marine Corps/O2
Unit: VMFA 115 MAG 13
Date of Birth: 24 April 1944
Home City of Record: BOGOTA NJ
Date of Loss: 11 May 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 165425 North  1055856 East
Status (in 1973): Killed In Action/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4B
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno:

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined Action
Combat Casualty File. 2020

REMARKS:

CACCF/CRASH/PILOT/3 YRS UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS/QUANG TIN

No further information available at this time.

 
11th May 1969
USMCF-4B Phantom II 15288V MFA‑115, MAG‑13, USMC, Chu Lai Hit by ground fire near Ban Kate in southern
Laos Martin-Baker1/LT Gary L Bain
ejected see also 12 January 1969
1/LT William Cornelius Ryan
KIA see also 12 January 1969


From the Tinker AFB news


 40 Years Later: Remembering the 'Mothers Day mission'

/By Journal Record Staff <http://journalrecord.com/tinkertakeoff/author/admin>
Posted: 01:00 AM Thursday, May 21, 2009
/
<http://journalrecord.com/shared/wp-files/archives//down/6721/images/Image2-5.jpg>

Radar Intercept Officer Marine Lt. William C. Ryan, left, and Lt. Gary Bain of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron, VMFA-115 at an airfield in Vietnam. (Photo courtesy of Gary Bain)

“Mayday, mayday, mayday,” called the forward air controller. “Manual four two is down. Manual four two is down. One good chute.”
Marine 1st Lt. Gary Bain hit the ground hard, his arm and leg already broken from the ejection. There was no sign of his fellow crewman from the F-4 Phantom and Lieutenant Bain’s survival radio wouldn’t work. Unable to move, Lieutenant Bain was down behind enemy lines. It was Mother’s Day May 11, 1969 and his 213th bombing mission of the war. It would be his last combat flight.
Forty years later, almost to the day, Capt. Gary Bain USMC (Ret.) brought together many of the participants of that day to his Wellston, Oklahoma farm, to remember, to reflect and to give thanks......

 

From: DPAA NCR OC Mailbox DPAA COMMS [mailto:dpaa.ncr.oc.mbx.dpaa-comms@mail.mil]
Sent: 06 January, 2017 08:07
Subject: Marine Missing From Vietnam War Accounted For

Dear Sir/Ma'am,

Marine Corps Reserve 1st Lt. William C. Ryan, missing from the Vietnam War, has now been accounted for. 

On May 11, 1969, Ryan was the radar intercept officer of an F-4B aircraft, for the Marine Fighter Attack Force 115, Marine Aircraft Group 13, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, Fleet Marine Force Pacific, on a combat mission over Savannakhet Province, Laos.  While pulling out of a bombing pass, the aircraft was hit by enemy fire.  The pilot lost control and called several times for his radar officer to eject, but received no response.  The pilot ejected before the aircraft crashed, and other members of the flight only witnessed one parachute leave the aircraft.  The location of the crash site precluded a search and recovery effort, but the pilot was rescued.  Ryan was declared deceased as of May 11, 1969. 

From January 1990 until May 2012, joint teams with the U.S., Lao People's Democratic Republic and Vietnamese Office for Research and Investigative Teams interviewed numerous witnesses to the crash, gathering information regarding where Ryan may have died. 

From May 2012 until January 2016, joint teams conducted six excavations of a crash site near Ban Alang Noi, recovering life support items, aircraft wreckage and possible human remains.  On Feb. 17, 2016, the remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis

Laboratory analysis and circumstantial evidence were used in the identification of his remains.

Interment services are pending.

For more information on DPAA please visit our website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call 703-699-1008.

~Fulfilling Our Nation's Promise~

 
Subject:  1st Lt. William (Billy) Ryan
Date:  Mon, 27 Feb 2017 20:04:24 -0500
From:  Mike
 
 
 
Billy Ryan will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on May 10, the eve of the crash anniversary.
 
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF FAMILIES OF AMERICAN PRISONERS AND MISSING IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

UPDATE: April 1, 2017

AMERICANS RECENTLY ACCOUNTED FOR: On March 28th, DPAA Statistics listed three USMC personnel as recently accounted for: Captain John A. House of NY, Cpl Glyn L. Runnels, Jr., of AL, and LCpl John D. Killen, II, of IA. All were listed as KIABNR on June 30, 1967, in South Vietnam. Their remains were recovered in June, 2012, and identification was authorized on December 22, 2015. DPAA has not yet published the formal announcement with interment plans. On March 7th, DPAA released an announcement that Captain Daniel W. Thomas, USAFR, listed as MIA on July 6, 1971 in South Vietnam, had been accounted for. Remains were recovered by a Vietnamese Unilateral Recovery Team (URT) in August, 2014, and identified in August, 2015, as those of Major Donald G. Carr, USA, the other person in the OV-10A piloted by Capt Thomas. Subsequent recovery efforts by the URT and repatriation of additional remains and material in April, 2016, brought the more recent ID of Capt Thomas. DPAA also listed on its website, under Statistics, the accounting for Colonel William E. Campbell, USAF, listed as MIA in Laos January 29, 1969. His remains were recovered April 17, 2014, identified August 29, 2016, and his name was placed on the DPAA website as accounted for on March 3rd. On February 22nd, DPAA announced the ID of Capt Robert R. Barnett, USAF, listed as KIA/BNR on April 7, 1966 while piloting a B-57B over Laos. His remains were recovered June 18, 2015 and identified August 16, 2016. Earlier this year, a Marine Corps Reserve officer, 1st Lt William C. Ryan, was the first person since June of 2016 announced as accounted for from the Vietnam War. 1st Lt Ryan was listed KIA/BNR in Laos on May 11, 1969. His remains were recovered January 27, 2016, and identified December 7, 2016.

 
... times for Ryan, who was the radar intercept officer, but he received no response, the Department of Defense's POW/MIA Accounting Agency said....


...The day after Ryan's family learned his remains finally had been found, they learned his widow, Judith Azzara, had cancer. The former Fairfax County principal died April 11. She was buried Tuesday, a day before her husband's burial.
 

"I did her eulogy yesterday. We had her funeral yesterday in Reston, at St. John Neumann, and today, my dad," Azzara and Ryan's son, Mike Ryan, said Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery. He was just a day from his first birthday when his father was killed....

 
 
NorthJersey.com   04/21/18

After years of searching, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency informed him that Billy Ryan's remains had been positively identified using DNA recovered from the Laos crash site. The next day, his mother was diagnosed with stage-four cancer, and his stepfather already was sick. Over the next four ...

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01/2020

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000oW61fEAC

1STLT WILLIAM CORNELIUS RYAN JR.

Return to Service Member Profiles

On May 4, 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Agency (DPAA) announced that the remains of First Lieutenant William Cornelius Ryan Jr., missing from the Vietnam War, had been identified.

First Lieutenant Ryan, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from New Jersey, served with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 115, Marine Air Group 13, 1st Marine Air Wing. On May 11, 1969, he was the radar intercept officer aboard an F-4B Phantom II on a combat mission over Savannakhet Province, Laos. As the aircraft pulled out of a bombing pass over the target, it was hit by enemy ground fire and the pilot lost control of the aircraft. The pilot was able to eject from the aircraft, but 1st Lt Ryan did not, and was killed when it crashed. The presence of enemy forces prevented a search for his remains at the time. However, the crash site was excavated from 2012 through 2016, and the remains recovered were sent to DPAA's laboratory, where they were identified as those of 1st Lt Ryan on the basis of forensic analysis.

First Lieutenant Ryan is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.    

If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.