An official website of the United States government         Here's how you know         
**Official websites use .mil**
A **.mil** website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
**Secure .mil websites use HTTPS**
 A **lock (lock )** or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to main content (Press Enter).

Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

Search
Search

Search

              - 
              - 
              - 

-  Home		 
-  Families		 
-  Our Missing    -  Searchable List of the Missing             
  -  Searchable Map of the Missing             
  -  Recently Accounted For             
  -  World War II      -  World War II Summary             
    -  Battle of Tarawa             
    -  Attack on Pearl Harbor 
  -  Korean War      -  Korean War Summary             
    -  Battle of Chosin Reservoir             
    -  Battle of Unsan             
    -  Korean Air Battles             
    -  The Inchon Campaign             
    -  The Pusan Perimeter             
    -  The DMZ Campaigns             
    -  Korean War Disinterments             
    -  Operation Glory             
    -  POW Camps 
  -  Vietnam War      -  Vietnam War Summary             
    -  Vietnam War Identification Project             
    -  Tet Offensive             
    -  Battle of Khe Sanh             
    -  Mayaguez Incident             
    -  Battle of Ia Drang             
    -  Lam Son 
  -  Cold War             
  -  Gulf Wars & Libya             
  -  Unknowns 
-  News & Stories    -  Our Stories             
  -  Press Releases             
  -  DPAA In The News             
  -  Year In Review 
-  Multimedia    -  Livestreams             
  -  Podcast             
  -  Briefing Videos             
  -  Science Videos             
  -  DPAA Laboratory             
  -  Media Gallery 
-  Resources    -  FAQs             
  -  AFMES DNA Laboratory             
  -  Publicly Released Documents             
  -  Family/VSO Update Notes             
  -  Family Member Guide             
  -  POW/MIA Day Toolkit             
  -  USRJC 
-  About    -  Leadership             
  -  Vision-Mission-Values             
  -  DPAA Organizational Chart 
-  Contact    -  Contact Us             
  -  Join Us      -  Careers 
  -  Report a Site             
  -  Donate to the Mission 
-  Volunteer		 

## News Release

# Cold War Missing In Action Aviator Identified (Snoddy)

The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) has announced that the remains ofthe co-pilot of an aircraft shot down in China during the Cold War have been identified and willsoon be returned to his family.

He is Mr. Robert C. Snoddy of Roseburg, Ore.

Snoddy and his pilot, Mr. Norman A. Schwartz, took off from an airfield near Seoul,South Korea, on November 29, 1952, with two other crew members to extract a CIA operativefrom China. The mission in the Jilin province of northeast China was planned to pick up theagent on the ground with an airborne extraction system.

Unfortunately, the agent on the ground had been compromised by the Chinese, and whenthe C-47 aircraft flew over the pickup point it was shot down by hostile ground fire. Snoddy andSchwartz were reportedly killed, while the other two crew members, Richard G. Fecteau andJohn T. Downey, were captured by the Chinese and held until 1971 and 1973, respectively.

For years the U.S. government asked the Chinese for information related to the fates ofSnoddy and Schwartz. The Chinese had in 1975 acknowledged to President Ford that the twohad died in the crash and buried near the site but that it was impossible to locate their remains.

But in 1999 the DPMO presented more detailed information about the crash to theChinese which led to their approval in 2002 of a visit by a U.S. team of investigators.Specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) interviewed a 78-year-oldvillager who had witnessed the shoot down in 1952. He described the incident in detail anddirected the investigators to the site where they found aircraft wreckage but no human remains.

In June 2004, a joint JPAC-Chinese recovery team excavated the site where they foundmore aircraft debris, personal effects of the crew as well as human remains. Among otherforensic tools, scientists of the JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory usedmitochondrial DNA to confirm the identification of Snoddy.

Of the 88,000 Americans missing from all conflicts, 129 are from the Cold War. Theremains of 19 other Americans, including Snoddy, have been accounted for since the end of theCold War.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missingAmericans, visit the DPMO web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo, or call 703-699-1169.

**                    SHARE                

**                    PRINT