Robert Clarence Marvin - Veterans Legacy Project

Their Story

Lieutenant Robert Clarence Marvin

Robert “Bob” Clarence Marvin was born on February 10, 1940, in Boone, Iowa, to Clarence Robert Marvin and Norma S. Dresselhau Marvin. His father was a retail hardware^[1] salesman.^[2] Bob had one brother and graduated from Greenville High School in Greenville, Michigan, in 1958. He earned a Navy scholarship and attended the University of Michigan, where he was a member of the Naval ROTC program.^[3] He was also a member of Sigma Chi in 1959.^[4] He was commissioned upon his graduation in 1962.

Bob married Mary Ellen Thomsen and had a child. He enlisted in the Navy in June 1962.^[5] Bob was commissioned as an ensign. An ensign signifies a junior rank of a commissioned officer. Bob was commissioned aboard the aircraft carrier, the Kitty Hawk, where he flew for Attack Squadron VFA-115. The squadron was nicknamed “Arabs” during the Vietnam War after they passed through the Suez Canal.

The Arabs made three deployments aboard the Kitty Hawk from 1962-1966, where they flew crucial search and rescue operations as well as combat air patrols. In October of 1965 alone, the Arabs dropped over 7.1 million pounds of ordinances across Vietnam. In September of 1966, the Arabs joined Carrier Air-Wing Five aboard the U.S.S. Hancock, Task Force 77 (TF-77), 7th Fleet,^[6] and made its second deployment to Vietnam from January to July of 1967.

About a month into his redeployment, Marvin was tasked with a mission over North Vietnam. On Valentine’s Day 1967, Bob set off from the U.S.S. Hancock. Bob was piloting a single-seat A1-H Skyraider (call sign Arab 511). Ten minutes into his flight, however, he radioed into the U.S.S. Hancock that he was losing oil pressure and would have to return to the ship. A short time later, he stated he had lost all oil pressure and would have to ditch his aircraft into the Gulf of Tonkin. That was the last time anyone heard from Bob. His plane was lost at sea and his body was never recovered.^[7]

The Navy conducted a two-day search for him, but nothing was found. Still today, Bob is considered unaccounted for and is MIA. At the time of his disappearance, Bob was a lieutenant. He had flown 111 missions from the Kitty Hawk.

Bob was awarded the Air Medal-Strike/Flight with four gold stars and one silver star (the equivalent of 10 awards of the Air Medal)^[8], Purple Heart, Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V,^[9] National Defense Medal, and the South Vietnamese Government’s Armed Services Expeditionary Medal.^[10] He was recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross but it was not awarded.

Bob has a Memorial Headstone in the Rock Island National Cemetery in plot MA-7. Bob’s name is also inscribed on the Vietnam Memorial wall in Washington, D.C.

Mary Ellen remarried one year later. Bob’s mother, Norma, was a member of Gold Star Mothers.^[11]

The Vietnam War produced tens of thousands of casualties, including the 58,200 United States servicemen who were either killed or went missing throughout the conflict. The number of KIA/MIA from the state of Michigan, where Bob was living at the time of the war, is 2,657. In comparison, Iowa had a reported number of 851 and Illinois had 2,936 KIA or MIA. Of the 58,200 soldiers who perished or went missing, 11,363 of those came in 1967, the same year Bob was tragically lost. 1967 is the third highest death/missing rate of the conflict, in which 16,899 people were lost in 1968 and 11,780 people were lost in 1969.

May all of the 58,200 people who lost their lives in the Vietnam War, including Robert Clarence Marvin, rest in peace. His name is also inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.^[12]