Lost on Veterans Day

Forty-two years ago, on Veterans Day, November 11, 1967, four members of the US Army's 173rd
Airborne Brigade, went on a search and destroy mission in the province of Kontum, in South
Vietnam. There, they engaged in enemy combat. Although they almost certainly died in the conflict, rescue teams never located their remains.

These four young men, aged 19-21 are:

Edwin Juan Martinez-Mercado
Born: December 7, 1946, in San German, PR
Home City of Record: New York, NY
Unit: C Company, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade
Status (in 1973): KIA/Body Not Recovered

Name: Gary Francis Shaw
Born: March 13, 1948 in Windsor, Nova Scotia
Home City of Record: Toledo, OH
Unit: A Battery, 3rd Battalion, 19th Artillery, 173rd Airborne Brigade
Status (in 1973): KIA/Body Not Recovered

Name: Robert Milton Staton, Jr.
Born: November 26, 1947, in New York, NY
Home City of Record: Jamesville NC
Unit: 173rd Engineer Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade
Status (in 1973): KIA/Body Not Recovered

Name: John Steiner Stuckey, Jr.
Born: May 30, 1946 in Green Castle, IN
Home City of Record: Cloverdale, IN
Unit: A Company, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade
Status (in 1973): KIA/Body Not Recovered

There are as many as 1800 men still reported as missing ever since the end of the Vietnam War in 1973, when North Vietnam agreed to release all Americans held as prisoners of war. Not all of those missing returned. Military experts expressed their profound alarm for the known POW's that did not return home with them.

Some of those lost were in radio contact with rescue teams after the Department of Defense, DOD, named them as missing in action. During these incidents of radio contact, they described events of enemy advancement. The DOD has also received photos and accounts of some of the missing, showing them in captivity.

After 1973, the DOD received thousands of reports of men still alive, with the North Vietnamese holding them against their will. In addition, others simply vanished. What happened to them after that? Where did they go?

Even though it is doubtful that any of these men are still alive today, America owes them a debt of gratitude. We have an obligation to these four men as well as to all the others still missing. They deserve to return home to the United States, the country they paid the ultimate price to defend.