Bruch, Donald William Jr.
Air Force 1st lieutenant

Donald William Jr. Bruch, age 24, from Essex County Montclair, New Jersey .

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Friday, April 29, 1966
Death details: On May 23, 2016, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of First Lieutenant Donald William Bruch Jr., missing from the Vietnam War. First Lieutenant Bruch joined the U.S. Air Force from New Jersey and was a member of the 333rd Tactical Fighter Squadron. On April 29, 1966, he was the pilot of the number two aircraft in a flight of four F-105D Thunderchiefs on a mission against an enemy target north of Hanoi, North Vietnam. While making his bomb run on the target, 1st Lt Bruch’s aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed. He was killed in the incident, and his remains could not be recovered at the time. The crash site was located in 2011, and between 2011 and 2013, three joint U.S. and Vietnamese excavations were conducted, uncovering debris and parts of the aircraft as well as human remains. Modern forensic techniques were able to identify the remains as those of 1st Lt Bruch. First Lieutenant Bruch is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency