The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970.
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970. Photo: U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Robert Donald Beutel.

The Wall › Panel 2W › Illinois › Robert Donald Beutel

ROBERT DONALD BEUTEL

Captain · U.S. Air Force

April 6, 1946 – November 26, 1971

Service record

Robert Donald Beutel, of Tremont, Illinois, served as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force. He was lost on November 26, 1971, in Laos, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 2W, Line 73 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 2W · Line 73

Position of Panel 2W on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Names are inscribed in the order of loss, starting at Panel 1E at the apex and ending at Panel 1W. At the Memorial, find the panel number at the base and count down from the top line.

See this name on the Wall

Remember

Did you know him? Family members and friends are invited to share a photograph or a memory. Nothing is posted until it has been reviewed.

Share a photo or memoryPhotos & remembrances on VVMF’s Wall of Faces ↗

Service

Branch
U.S. Air Force
Rank
Captain (CAPT)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Occupation
Weapon Systems Officer (1555C)
Unit (as recorded)
497 TFS 8 TFW
Born
April 6, 1946
Home of record
Tremont, Illinois (Tazewell County)

Casualty

Date of loss
November 26, 1971
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Declared Dead
Circumstance
Aircraft Crash — crew
First reported
Missing in action
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

Six names on the Wall carry the date November 26, 1971. In November 1971, 109 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “497 TFS 8 TFW”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.

He died in Laos while the air war over Laos was under way. From 1964 to 1973, U.S. aircraft bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail and supported the war in northern Laos; many of the Americans lost over Laos were never recovered.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 2W, Line 73

Same unit, same day

Source. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System, Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File (as of April 29, 2008), Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 330, National Archives (NAID 2240992). Panel and line as recorded in that file. This page presents the official record and its historical context; no biography has been written for him yet. See something wrong? Report a correction.