THE WALL OF FACES

Dear Cdr Barton Wade, Thank you for your service as a Naval Flight Officer on the USS SARATOGA. Glad you were identified in 1986. Welcome Home. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Today we celebrate Columbus Day. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

CMDR Barton Scott Wade is buried at Boonville Cemetery in Boonville, NY. He was buried with full military honors of May 31, 1986.

Your sacrifice is not forgotten.

LCDR Robert S. Graustein and LCDR Barton S. Wade were a members of Attack Squadron 75 (VA-75), Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3), aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-60). On December 21, 1972, they comprised the crew of a U.S. Navy Grumman A-6A Intruder (#152946) attack aircraft on a combat mission to attack airfields at Haiphong and Kien An in North Vietnam. Approximately six miles southwest of Haiphong, their Intruder was destroyed by an airborne explosion after being hit by ground fire. When Graustein and Wade failed to return from their mission, it was assumed that they had been lost in the target area, and the crew was placed in Missing in Action (MIA) status. None of the American POWs repatriated in February and March of 1973 had any knowledge of the two men, and they were continued in MIA status until the Secretary of the Navy approved a Presumptive Findings of Death for Graustein on March 3, 1975, and for Wade on August 24, 1976. On March 7, 1986, the U.S. government announced that the remains of the two air crewmen were among a group of remains turned over by the Vietnamese government on December 4, 1985. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, usnamemorialhall.org, and aviation-safety.net]

Thinking of my Uncle Bart today and wishing he could have been a part of my children's lives.

The silver MIA remembrance bracelet for LCDR Wade has been in my family for over 20 years now. I found it when going through my own family's estate. As a veteran and the last surviving member of my immediate family, I send much love and respect to the entire Wade family and his squadron. God bless, you. You are not forgotten!Sharpe