This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Gaylon Hemphill, DP3
to remember
Cassell, Robin Bern, LTJG.
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Contact Info
Home Town Ventura, CA
Last Address Ft Huachuca,AZ
MIA Date Jul 15, 1967
Cause KIA-Body Not Recovered
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Sea
Location Tonkin Gulf
Conflict Vietnam War
Memorial Coordinates 23E 074
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Lieutenant Junior Grade Robin B. Cassell was a Navy pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 152 onboard the aircraft carrier USS ORISKANY. On July 15, 1967 he launched in his A1H Skyraider aircraft as the flight leader of a section of A1H's on a daytime armed coastal reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam.
During the mission, Cassell's aircraft was seen to be hit by automatic weapons fire during an attack on water craft near Cua Dai, North Vietnam. (This is in the approximate region of the city of Thanh Hoa.) Cassell radioed, "I'm hit" and shortly thereafter crashed into the sea and exploded on impact. No parachute was seen, and search and rescue efforts turned up negative results.
This Sailor has an (IMO) In Memory Of Headstone in: Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California (VA):
A village in central New York state and the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War. During the Saratoga campaign in the summer of 1777, a British force invested Fort Stanwix in central New York, intending to seize control of the Mowhawk Valley and guard the left flank of the British advance on Albany. On 4 August 1777, a relief column of some 800 Tryon County militiamen and 40 Oneida warriors under Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer and Chief Skenandoah set out from Fort Dayton, some forty miles to the east. Two days later, as the Tryon militia entered the marshy ravine of Oriskany Creek, a smaller force of Tories, Mohawks and Senecas under Sir John Johnson, Col. John Butler and Chief Joseph Brant ambushed the patriot militia. Initially thrown into disorder and suffering heavy losses, Herkimers' force regrouped on higher ground and fought a bitter six hour battle against the Loyalists, marked by hand-to-hand combat with bayonets and tomahawks. Losses at Oriskany were severe and both sides withdrew, with American losses amounting to half the original force, including General Herkimer who died of his wounds a week later. Although the patriots did not then relieve Fort Stanwix, a second expedition forced the British force to lift the siege and retreat to Canada, contributing to British General John Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga in October.