WASHINGTON The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Tuesday that U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Ronald W. Forrester, 25, of Odessa, killed during Vietnam was accounted for Dec. 4, 2023.
According to a DPAA news release, in the winter of 1972, Forrester was assigned to Marine All-Weather Attack Squadron 533, Marine Attack Group 12, 1st Marine Air Wing. On Dec. 27, Forrester was piloting an A-6A Intruder, along with his co-pilot, during a nighttime combat mission over the northern part of the Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam. After entering the target area, Forrester’s aircraft ceased radio communications and never returned to base. Search and rescue teams could not locate any trace of the aircraft or the crew in the Le Thuy District, Quang Binh Province. In September 1978, the Marine Corps changed Forrester’s initial Missing In Action status to Killed in Action.
After decades of investigation into the incident yielding no results, investigators discovered remains and material evidence which is believed to be associated with both missing aviators. This recovered evidence has been associated with Reference Number (REFNO) 1973 incident and corresponding crash site (VN-02653). To date REFNO 1973 is the only A-6 loss within 30 kilometers of the crash site, which the DPAA Indo-Pacific Directorate believes is a direct correlation to the missing Marines.
To identify Forrester’s remains, scientists from DPAA used circumstantial evidence recovered from the crash site, as well as mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) evidence.
Forrester’s name is recorded on the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with others who are unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Forrester will be buried on Oct. 7, 2024, in Arlington National Cemetery.
For family and funeral information, contact the Marine Corps Casualty Office at (800) 847-1597.
DPAA is grateful to the government of Vietnam for their partnership in this mission.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
Forrester’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000BTZIEA4.
