Dewispelaere, Rexford John
Air Force Chief master sergeant

Rexford John Dewispelaere from Penfield, New York, Monroe county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: November 24, 1969
Death details: On October 2, 1995, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Sergeant Master Sergeant Rexford John De Wispelaere, missing from the Vietnam War. Senior Master Sergeant De Wispelaere joined the U.S. Air Force from Kentucky and was a member of the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron. On November 24, 1969, he was loadmaster on a C-130 Hercules on a forward air controller/illumination mission over Laos. While operating near Ban Salou, the Hercules was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire, and SMSgt De Wispelaere was killed in the crash. Immediate search and rescue efforts were prevented by enemy presence in the area, and a friendly aircraft that later passed over the crash site saw no signs of survivors. In 1993, a joint U.S. and Laotian search team recovered remains from a crash site associated with SMSgt De Wispelaere’s Hercules. In 1995, forensic analysis identified some of the recovered remains as those of SMSgt De Wispelaere.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency