
Donald David Stewart, age 29, from Harnett County Coats, North Carolina .
Parents: Mr. and Mrs. Odell Hasty, Robert G. Stewart
Spouse: Wanda Stewart Adams
Children: Dona Stewart
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Saturday, December 11, 1965
Death details: On February 27, 1979, the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii(CILHI, now DPAA) identified the remains of Staff Sergeant Donald David Stewart, missing from the Vietnam War. Staff Sergeant Stewart joined the U.S. Air Force from North Carolina and was a member of the 309th Air Commando Squadron. On December 11, 1965, he was the loadmaster aboard a C-123B Provider (tail number 56-4376, call sign “Snipe 67”) that carried three other crew members and eighty-one members of the Republic of Vietnam Army on a transport mission from Pleiku Air Base, Vietnam, to Tuy Hoa Air Base. The Provider went down during its flight to Tuy Hoa, killing SSgt Stewart and the others on board. Their remains could not be recovered at the time. On June 16, 1974, South Vietnamese military personnel found the crash site in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam, and collected human remains from the aircraft wreckage. The remains and artifacts were turned over to CILHI, and SSgt Stewart was identified among the remains recovered. Staff Sergeant 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, News and Observer (1966)