Stanley George Sprague, age 36, from South Dakota, Pennington county.
Service era: Vietnam
Military history: Purple Heart
Date of death: Monday, September 12, 1966
Death details: On January 11, 1991, the Central Identification Lab-Hawaii (CILHI, now DPAA) identified the remains of Major Stanley George Sprague, missing from the Vietnam War. Major Sprague, who joined the U.S. Air Force from South Dakota, served with the 602nd Tactical Fighter Squadron. On September 12, 1966, he piloted an A-1E Skyraider (serial
number 52-133928) departing from Udorn, Thailand on a reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam. During the mission, the Skyraider was shot down and Major Sprague was killed. Hostile presence in the area inhibited search efforts during the war and his remains were not recovered at the time. In 1990, the Vietnamese government repatriated remains which were later identified as those of Major Sprague. Major Sprague 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.
Cemetery: Memorialized in Black Hills National
Source: National Archives, grave marker