Stafford, Ronald Dean
Air Force Captain

Ronald Dean Stafford, age 29, from Oxford, Nebraska, Furnas county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Tuesday, November 21, 1972

Death details: On November 21, 1972, an F-111 Aardvark (tail number 67-092, call sign “Burger 54”) with a crew of two embarked on a combat mission over North Vietnam. The last known contact with the Aardvark occurred when the aircraft was over Laos in the vicinity of (GC)  WD 600 870 and approaching the target, which was located at (GC) XE 429 479. When nothing further was heard from “Burger 54,” search efforts were initiated, but were unsuccessful. Ten days after “Burger 54” disappeared, pieces of the aircraft were found on a beach in South Vietnam in the vicinity of (GC) ZD 060 160. Investigators determined that the aircraft had crashed at sea with the crew aboard, and that the crew had probably not survived the crash.

Captain Ronald Dean Stafford, who joined the U.S. Air Force from Nebraska, served with the 430th Tactical Fighter Squadron. He was the pilot of the Aardvark when it crashed, and his remains were not recovered. Today, Captain Stafford is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency