Missing in Action Report

 SCHULTZ, RONALD JAMES  

Name: Ronald James Schultz 
Rank/Branch: E3/US 
Army Unit: HHC, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division 
Date of Birth: 27 May 1948 
Home City of Record: Hillsboro KS 
Date of Loss: 21 July 1970 
Country of Loss: South Vietnam 
Loss Coordinates: 162634N 1071334E (YD376191) 
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action 
Category: 4 
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground 
Refno: 1649  

Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: 
raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, 
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. 
Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 1998.  
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)  

SYNOPSIS: On July 21, 1970, SP4 Ronald J. Schultz was a member of a unit from the 101st Airborne
Division that came under intense enemy fire while helping load wounded and casualties from a 
battle area. Schultz was a senior medical specialist and had been in Vietnam 9 months.  
SP4 Schultz was slightly wounded and was scheduled to be medically evacuated. As the "dust-off" 
chopper approached the LZ it began receiving automatic weapons fire, and only two persons could 
be loaded before the helicopter made an emergency takeoff.  SP4 Schultz panicked when he could 
not board the helicopter and grabbed the right landing skid. The aircraft then climbed to an 
estimated altitude of 300 feet when members of the unit saw him lose his hold and fall into the 
jungle. Due to the enemy situation, no search parties were able to get to the area where he fell.
Schultz' family has long ago given up hope that he will return to them alive. They don't know for
sure, but believe he was killed when he fell from the skid of the dust-off that day in July. 
They hope he was. To imagine his being a prisoner for nearly 20 years is unbearable.  

Schultz is one of nearly 2500 Americans still prisoner, missing or unaccounted for in Southeast 
Asia. 

As reports flow in relating to missing Americans, families reflect with new agony of the 
fates of their sons and brothers. By some miracle, if SP4 Schultz survived the fall from his 
helicopter, he could be one of those said to be alive. What must he think of his country?   

Information from POW Network