Simmons, Robert Eugene
Air Force Master sergeant

Robert Eugene Simmons from DeRuyter, New York, Madison county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: March 29, 1972
Death details: On May 26, 1988, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Senior Master Sergeant Robert Eugene Simmons, missing from the Vietnam War.

Senior Master Sergeant Simmons entered the U.S. Air Force from New York and was a member of the 16th Special Operations Squadron. On March 29, 1972, he was a crew member aboard an AC-130A gunship (tail number 55-0044, nicknamed “Prometheus”) that took off from Ubon Airfield, Thailand, on a night reconnaissance mission to targets east of Savannakhet in southern Laos. The aircraft was shot down by enemy surface-to-air missiles, killing SMSgt Simmons and the other crew members. Search and rescue efforts were curtailed due to heavy enemy activity, and no remains could be recovered at that time. Between 1986 and 2006, a U.S./Laotian team excavated the crash site in Savannakhet Province and recovered human remains and artifacts. Investigators were able to identify SMSgt Simmons among the remains recovered.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency