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| Name: | David Scott Greiling |
| Rank/Branch: | O4/US Navy |
| Unit: | Attack Squadron 82, USS AMERICA (CVA-66) |
| Date of Birth (DOB): | 25 March 1935 (Cleveland OH) |
| Home City of Record: | Hillsdale, MI |
| Loss Date: | 24 July 1968 |
| Country of Loss: | North Vietnam |
| Loss Coordinates: | 180200N 1061500E (XE429850) |
| Status (in 1973): | Prisoner of War |
| Category: | 2 |
| Acft/Vehicle/Ground: | A7A |
| Refno: | 1234 |
| Other Personnel in Incident: | (none missing) |
| Source: | Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1990 with the assistance of 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 1998. |
| Remarks: | |
| Synopsis: | |
| After he graduated from Purdue University in 1957 with a degree in engineering, Scotty Greiling enlisted in the Navy. Scotty Greiling had an exemplary Navy career. He received his master's degree in nuclear science from the Navy post-graduate school at Monterey, California, and went on to be an instructor at the Naval Academy. When he shipped out to Vietnam, he took with him his determination and idealism. He wanted to serve his country.
David Greiling was the pilot of an A7 low-level attack plane flying as fight leader of a section of two aircraft on a night armed reconnaissance mission over Mui Ron, mountainous, hook-shaped peninsula in the Bay of Tonkin, on July 24, 1968. Mountain peaks in the area reached approximately 3500 feet. The night was overcast with multiple cloud layers. After sighting a target of moving lights at about 2100 hours which Greiling believed to be trucks heading towards the mountains, he radioed, "I'm rolling in now," which proved to be the last word received from his aircraft. An immediate search from the air was undertaken with lighting of flares dropped from other aircraft. The large fire which had been observed was still burning, with numerous small, brightly burning fires in the immediate area. The crash site was located approximately 1500 feet up the eastern side of a ridge about 500 feet from the crest. The burning area was heavily wooded. Further attempts to make radio contact with Greiling were negative and no emergency radio transmissions were heard. Search and rescue efforts failed to locate any trace of the aircraft or Greiling. Greiling was placed in a casualty status of Missing In Action (MIA). Greiling was classified Missing In Action until July 17, 1969 when he was reclassified Prisoner of War as a result of an intelligence report indicating that he had been captured. A Polish seaman was shown the identification cards of 30 Americans in a Haiphong bar. He apparently understood the importance of what he was shown as he wrote down the names and gave them to the U.S. Navy when he returned to Poland. Twenty-eight of the 30 men were released from Vietnam in 1973 in exchange for timed withdrawal of U.S. troops. But the Vietnamese never acknowledged Greiling's captivity or confirmed that they had his identification card. (Note: some versions of this report state that Greiling's photograph was on "a bulletin board in northern Vietnam".) No new information came in on the case and in 1973 after the prisoner release in "Operation Homecoming", the debriefings of returned POWs added no reference to Greiling. Nearly 2500 Americans did not return from the war in Vietnam. Nearly 10,000 reports have been received convincing many authorities that hundreds remain alive in captivity. Whether Greiling is alive is not known. What is certain, however, is that Vietnam and her communist allies can tell us what happened to our men. |
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All Biographical and loss information on POWs provided by OpJC have been supplied by Chuck and Mary Schantag of POWNET. Please check with POWNET regularly for updates. Updated 28 May 2009 with information received from Tom Brown, Captain-Ret, USNR, a squadron mate of Cdr. David Scott Greiling in VA-82 in 1968 and one of the A-7 pilots in VA-82 on that combat cruise on USS America. According to Tom Brown, Captain-Ret, USNR, Scotty's single-seat A-7 struck the ground during a night dive bombing run on a target near Cape Mui Ron, North Vietnam. His tour of duty did not begin on July 24, 1968, that was the day he was lost. The block states "Casualty was on Sept 14, 1973." There is no current evidence to indicate he survived the crash and not "died captured." He was not a "CRASH AT SEA." |
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| DAVID SCOTT GREILING
CDR - O5 - Navy - Regular 38 year old Married, Caucasian, Male Date of Birth - Mar 25, 1935 From - HILLSDALE, MICHIGAN His tour of duty began on Jul 24, 1968 Casualty was on Sep 14, 1973 in NORTH VIETNAM Hostile, died captured FIXED WING - PILOT AIR LOSS, CRASH AT SEA Body was not recovered Religion - PROTESTANT Panel 51W - - Line 49 |
Source: The VietNam Veterans' Memorial Wall Page. |
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