CASE SYNOPSIS:  LAPHAM, ROBERT GRANTHAN

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Name:				Robert Granthan Lapham
Rank/Branch:			O4/US Air Force
Unit:				
				
Date of Birth:			18 February 1927			
Home City of Record:		Marshall MI
Date of Loss:			08 February 1968			
Country of Loss:		South Vietnam	
Loss Coordinates:		163158N 1064157E	
Status (in 1973):		Killed/Body Not Recovered	
Category:			2		
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground:        A1E
Other Personnel
In Incident:                    none missing

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS:  Maj. Robert Lapham won a Silver Star for one of the most important
bombing attacks of the war.  Despite heavy enemy ground fire, he successfully
broke a heavy siege upon U.S. troops near the demilitarized zone (DMZ).  He is
believed to have died in the mission when the A1E Skyraider he was piloting
apparently was hit and exploded with a half-load of bombs aboard.  His plane
apparently was hit by machinegun fire that had forced the three other planes he
was leading to turn back.

Neither Lapham's body nor wreckage of the aircraft was found.  The Air Force
described the mission as one of "extraordinary achievement".

Robert Lapham's wife died five years after he went missing.  She never knew for
sure whether he died or just disappeared.  

When the war ended, refugees from the communist-overrun countries of Southeast
Asia began to flood the world, bringing with them stories of live GI's still in
captivity in their homelands.  Since 1975, over 6000 such stories have been
received.  Many authorities believe that hundreds of Americans are still held
in the countries in Southeast Asia.

The U.S. Government operates on the "assumption" that one or more men are being
held, but that it cannot "prove" that this is the case, allowing action to be
taken.  Meanwhile, low-level talks between the U.S. and Vietnam proceed,
yielding a few sets of remains when it seems politically expedient to return
them, but as yet, no living American has returned.