Brinckmann, Robert Edwin
Air Force Colonel

Robert Edwin Brinckmann from Newark, New Jersey.

Date of death: November 4, 1966
Death details:  On December 20, 1989, the Central Identification Lab-Hawaii (CILHI, now DPAA) identified the remains of Colonel Robert Edwin Brinckmann, missing from the Vietnam War.

Colonel Brinckmann entered the U.S. Air Force from New Jersey and served with the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On November 4, 1966, he was the pilot of an F-105F Thunderchief (serial number 63-8273, call sign “Machete 01”) on a combat mission over North Vietnam. His aircraft was shot down by enemy fire during the mission, and he was killed in the incident. His body could not be recovered at the time. In 1989, the Vietnamese government returned a set of human remains to U.S. custody, and analysts were subsequently able to identify the remains as those of Col Brinckmann.

Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency