Steele, Robert Coultas
Air Force Captain

Robert Coultas Steele, age 28, from Detroit, Michigan, Wayne county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Wednesday, March 5, 1952
Death details: On the evening of March 5, 1952, a B-26 Invader (tail number 44-34542A, call sign “Pintail 09”) with a crew of four departed Kunsan Air Base on a night intruder mission east of Pyongyang, North Korea. The last contact with the aircraft occurred as it crossed over into North Korea, and the controller gave the pilot the coordinates of his target, an enemy supply train. The pilot acknowledged the coordinates, although when he read them back to the controller, one digit was off. The controller promptly corrected him, but the pilot did not acknowledge the correction. It is uncertain whether the aircraft proceeded to the correct coordinates, or to the erroneous ones, which would have placed the aircraft one-hundred miles off course. The aircraft failed to return to base and was not heard from again. Search efforts were unable to locate the Invader, and none of the crew were reported to be prisoners of war. Captain Robert Coultas Steele, who joined the U.S. Air Force from Michigan, served with the 8th Bombardment Squadron, 3rd Bombardment Wing (Light). He was the navigator of this B-26 when it disappeared, and he was lost in the incident. His remains were not recovered and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Captain Steele is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com