Tag: San Bernardino County California

Robert Alexander Cairns, age 34, from Highland, California, San Bernardino county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Friday, June 17, 1966
Death details: On June 17, 1966, a C-130E Hercules (tail number 63-7785) carrying fourteen service members took off from Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, en route to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan. Approximately twenty minutes after take-off, the Hercules exploded for unknown reasons and crashed into the South China Sea. Nearby ships witnessed the incident and quickly arrived on the scene to assist in rescue operations, and recovered the remains of two service members. However, twelve individuals who were aboard the aircraft were lost during the incident and remain unaccounted-for. Staff Sergeant Robert Alexander Cairns, who joined the U.S. Air Force from California, was a member of the 51st Field Maintenance Squadron. He was a passenger aboard the Hercules when it went down, and was lost with the aircraft. His remains were not recovered following the incident. Today, Staff Sergeant Cairns is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual’s case to be in the analytical category of Non-recoverable.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency