Stewart, Peter Joseph
Air Force Colonel

Peter Joseph Stewart, age 37, from Polk County Winter Haven, Florida .

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Tuesday, March 15, 1966
Death details: On February 28, 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Colonel Peter Joseph Stewart, missing from the Vietnam War. Colonel Stewart, who joined the U.S. Army from Florida, served with Headquarters, 8th Tactical Fighter Wing. On March 15, 1966, he piloted a two-seat F-4C Phantom II (tail number 64-0732, call sign “Boron 02”) on an armed reconnaissance mission over Dien Bien Phu, North Vietnam. While making a strafing run on two vehicles located in the target area, Col Stewart’s aircraft crashed near the target, killing him. The active enemy presence prevented a ground search for his remains, and he was not recovered at the time. In 2014, a joint U.S./Vietnamese recovery team excavated the crash site, with several further excavations occurring between 2014 and 2017. Human remains were recovered from the site and were eventually identified as those of Col Stewart. Colonel Stewart 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: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency