POW-MIA'S THAT HAVE BEEN
FOUND & RETURNED

"He said, "All I'm doing is turning so we can go back and land.' "

On April 23, 1966, Air Force Capt. Robert R. Dyczkowski's F-105 fighter-bomber disappeared while on a bombing mission over North Vietnam. It was his 99th mission, and he had one more to go before he was due to return home the following week.

"We were told that his plane had gone down and it might be a couple of days" before his fate was known, said his sister, now Lee Fellner. "A couple of days became a couple of years, and we still didn't know."

Dyczkowski was listed as missing in action for 12 years. In 1978, the military changed his designation to "presumed killed in action, body not recovered."

Now there is proof that he died when his plane crashed into a jungle near what was then known as Hanoi in North Vietnam.

Wreckage, a bone fragment (not in good enough condition to allow for DNA testing), part of his military identification card and part of a flight helmet embossed with "Capt. Dyc . . ." have been recovered, and the Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii reported to the family that there is sufficient circumstantial evidence to allow the remains to be designated as those of Dyczkowski.

A memorial Mass and burial of the artifacts in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia is scheduled April 6.

"We wanted to let people know" of a resolution, Fellner said. "All those people supported us all those years, and it's finally come to a conclusion."

Fellner, of the Town of Tonawanda, and another sister, Sue Czajkowski of Cheektowaga, continue to be active in the campaign for full disclosure on POW/MIA issues.

"We now have some closure, but a lot of other families don't, and we will continue to support them," Fellner said. "And we want to say thanks to all those who wore our brother's MIA bracelet and for them to know he will have a place of honor in Arlington.

"He died serving his country and as an honorable man doing his duty. . . . I have no bitterness (over U.S. involvement in the war)."

A graduate of Burgard Vocational High School, Dyczkowski, who was promoted to colonel posthumously, was 33 and on his second tour in Vietnam when he was killed. He married a California woman, Delma, and had three children. She now lives in Arizona, as do her two daughters. The son lives in Michigan.

The children, now 36, 39 and 41, grew up without a father. "I told them what a wonderful dad he was and how much he loved them," Delma Dyczkowski said Tuesday night in a telephone interview. "They have suffered."

"I'm glad there is finally a resolution for me and my family, and although it's taken 35 years, we have closure. There are close to 2,000 other families (of MIAs) still waiting for closure, and I hope they will soon come to it.

"I think it's important for people to know that they are still searching over there and that the government hasn't deserted us."