This is another story of a young American hero. He left his home and never came back. No matter if is is alive or dead, he needs to be returned to his country so that his family can know and we may pay proper respect to him.Please read this page and check out the links below. Together we CAN make a difference.

Name: James Philip Schimberg
Rank/Branch: SP4/US Army
Unit: 20th Aviation Detachment (See note in text)
Date of Birth: 14 December 1942
Home City of Record: Cedar Rapids IA
Loss Date: 09 January 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 125801N 1091600E (CQ120265)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: OV1C
Other Personnel in Incident: Thaddeus E. Williams, Jr. (missing) REMARKS: SYNOPSIS: James Schimberg was the observer on an OV1C Mohawk flying out of Hue/Phu Bai Airbase with the 20th Aviation Detachment (later known as the 131st Aviation Company).

On January 9, 1966, Schimberg and his pilot, Thaddeus
Williams flew a night reconnaissance mission in South Vietnam.

The last radio contact with Schimberg's plane was made when the plane was a
short distance southwest of the city of Tuy Hoa in Phu Yen Province. The two
men were listed Missing In Action by the Army. One year and a day later, the
two were listed "KIA" based on no new information that they were alive. Most of the details of the loss of Schimberg and Williams' aircraft is still classified (1989).

The OV1C was outfitted with infrared detection equipment and a forward aimed camera. The infrared sensor was especially valuable in surveillance because the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong relied so heavily upon darkness to conceal their activity.

The planes were generally unarmed.
Schimberg is among nearly 2500 Americans who did not come home from Southeast Asia at the end of the war.

Unlike the MIAs of other wars, many of these men can be accounted for. Tragically, over 8000 reports of Americans still in captivity in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S., yet freedom for them seems beyond our grasp. NOTE: The 20th Aviation Detachment existed until December 1966, at which time it was reassigned as the 131st Aviation Company, 223rd Aviation Battalion (Combat Support). The 131st Aviation Company had been assigned to I Corps Aviation Battalion since June 1966, when it arrived in Vietnam. In August 1967, the 131st Aviation Company was reassigned to the 212th Aviation Battalion where it remained until July 1971, whereupon it transferred out of Vietnam.
There were a large number of pilots lost from this unit, including Thaddeus E. Williams and James P. Schimberg (January 9, 1966); John M. Nash and Glenn D. McElroy (March 15, 1966); James W. Gates and John W. Lafayette (April 6, 1966); Robert G. Nopp and Marshall Kipina (July 14, 1966); Jimmy M. Brasher and Robert E. Pittman (September 28, 1966); James M. Johnstone and James L. Whited (November 19, 1966); Larry F. Lucas (December 20, 1966); and Jack W. Brunson and Clinton A. Musil (May 31, 1971). Missing OV1 aircraft crew from the 20th/131st represent well over half of those lost on OV1 aircraft during the war.

U.S. Army records list both Nopp and Kipina as part of the "131st Aviation Company, 14th Aviation Battalion", yet according to "Order of Battle" by Shelby Stanton, a widely recognized military source, this company was never assigned to the 14th Aviation Battalion. The 131st was known as "Nighthawks", and was a surveillance aircraft company.

You can make a difference!

James Schimberg is finally being returned to his country so that his family can know and we may pay proper respect to him.

The REMAINS OF 3 FLIERS RETURNING HOME 12/22/98 16:19 (UPI Focus) Remains of 3 fliers returning home By MIKE BILLINGTON= WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 (UPI) _

The remains of three American fliers killed during the Vietnam war are being returned to their families for burial. The Defense Department said today that the remains are of Army Capt. Thaddeus E. Williams Jr. of Mobile, Ala.; Army Spec. 4 James Schimberg of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and a Navy officer whose name was withheld at the request of his family. Williams and Schimberg were flying a night reconnaissance mission over Phu Yen province Jan. 9, 1966 when their navigational system inexplicably went out. They were flying through heavy cloud cover at the time and crashed. In August 1993 a joint U.S.-Vietnamese team of specialists interviewed villagers near the crash site. A month later they were given some identification tags bearing the names of the missing airmen and bone fragments. Specialists at the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii conducted highly advanced DNA tests on the bone fragments to positively identify the remains as those of Williams and Schimberg. Since the United States and Vietnam have been cooperating in the search for missing American servicemen, the remains of 510 soldiers previously listed as missing in action have been recovered and identified. There are still 2,073 servicemen who are unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.

Please click the bracelet above to adopt your POW/MIA.

You CAN make a difference.

The VietNam Veterans' Memorial Wall Page
How to add this link to your homepage