THE WALL OF FACES

MIA Commander Clarence William Stoddard Jr., USNA Class of 1949, has his name chiseled into one of the stone "Courts of the Missing" at the Honolulu Memorial (Vietnam War Section - Navy Court "B") in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (the "Punchbowl") on the island of Oahu in the state of Hawaii. See the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) website at this link:

https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/stoddard%3Dclarence

Information about MIA Commander Clarence William Stoddard Jr., USNA Class of 1949, from the POW Network website is at this link:

https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/s/s433.htm

Information about MIA Commander Clarence William Stoddard Jr., USNA Class of 1949, from the Task Force Omega website is at this link:

https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/s/s433.htm

The Department of Defense conducted ceremonies at the Pentagon and at Hickam AFB on Friday, 18 September 2020 in commemoration of POW/MIA Recognition Day. Deputy Defense Secretary David L. Nordquist remembered the 1,586 MIAs from the Vietnam War as well as all those still unaccounted for from WWII, the Korean War, the Cold War and other conflicts. Director (Maj. Gen, USAFR, ret) Kelly McKeague of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) also recorded a separate video message to Gold Star MIA families. Additionally, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) produced a “virtual” event on 18 Sep. Since the 2019 Ceremony, DPAA has positively identified 1 Vietnam War MIA. Commander Clarence William Stoddard Jr., USNA Class of 1949, is one of those 1,586 MIAs unaccounted for in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam War. He is one of 3 graduates from his U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis class of 1949 who is still MIA. The other 2 MIAs from the USNA class of 1949 (rank & name) are: (1) CDR Edgar Rawsthorne & (2) CDR Leonard Vogt. As of the date of this ceremony, there are 55 USNA graduates still MIA in Southeast Asia (SEA) from the Vietnam War. They account for 32% of the 169 men from Annapolis who made the ultimate sacrifice in SEA during the Vietnam War.

This is the link to the DoD/DVIDS video for the Pentagon ceremony:
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/766486/defense-officials-recognize-prisoners-war-missing-service-members-ceremony

This is the link to the DoD/DVIDS video for the Hickam AFB ceremony:
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/766491/admiral-commemorates-prisoners-war-and-missing-service-members-ceremony

This is the link to DPAA Director McKeague’s video statement:
https://vimeo.com/454474340

This is the link to the VVMF virtual remembrance: https://www.vvmf.org/POWMIA-2020/

CDR Clarence W. Stoddard Jr. was a U.S. Navy pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 25 (VA-25), Carrier Air Wing 2 (CVW-2) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CV-43). On September 14, 1966, CDR Stoddard was the pilot of a A-1H Skyraider (#139756) in a flight of two conducting a post-strike coastal reconnaissance mission. After receiving a surface to air missile (SAM) warning, two missiles were sighted heading for the flight. The first SAM detonated while the aircraft were in evasive maneuvers, and the second SAM exploded below and in front of Stoddard’s Skyraider. The blast caused his plane to roll into a 90-degree bank and enter the waters of the South China Sea at a 50-degree dive. No parachute was observed, and no beeper signals were heard. An extensive search was conducted at the scene of impact but no wreckage or remains were recovered. Only a trace of dye marker was seen by search and rescue personnel. In August 1992, a Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JTF-FA) team travelled to Nghi Thiet village in Nghe An Province, SVN, where two witnesses provided information concerning the crash of a “straight wing” aircraft near the Cua Lo estuary in the summer of 1966. They stated that the first of the two aircraft was struck by groundfire and crashed about two miles offshore. The witnesses saw no pilot eject and no remains ever washed ashore in the village. The location and circumstances of the incident correlate to the loss of Stoddard. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org]