VETERAN OF THE DAY
September 9, 2026
CWO2 Bruce Edward Boltze
United States Marine Corps
Sub Unit 1, 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company
Flint, Michigan
January 31, 1938 – October 6, 1972
Killed in Action • Body Not Returned • Still Unaccounted For
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Panel 1W • Line 80
The First Time the Sea Gave Him Back.
The Second Time, America Began Waiting
A Marine from Michigan
Bruce Edward Boltze was born on January 31, 1938.
His home of record was Flint, Michigan, in Genesee County. The National Archives confirms his birth date, Marine Corps service, rank of Chief Warrant Officer 2, Flint home of record, and October 6, 1972 loss. Most importantly, its casualty record marks the question that remains unresolved more than half a century later:
Remains recovered: N. (National Archives)
Bruce was 34 years old when he was lost.
By then, he was no newly arrived Marine.
He had become a warrant officer serving in one of the Marine Corps’ highly specialized organizations:
Sub Unit 1, 1st ANGLICO
ANGLICO stands for Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company.
Its Marines performed the demanding job of coordinating supporting fires among forces on the ground, aircraft overhead, and naval guns offshore. In Vietnam, 1st ANGLICO personnel worked alongside American and allied forces. (The Virtual Wall)
Bruce Boltze’s battlefield was therefore not confined to the ground.
It extended into the sky and across the sea.
And in 1972, those two worlds would intersect twice.
May 26, 1972
The First Time the Sea Gave Him Back
On May 26, 1972, CWO2 Boltze took part in a Fast Forward Air Controller mission with Marine Captain W. E. Ramsbottom.
Their aircraft was a two-seat Marine:
TA-4F Skyhawk
Bureau Number 153508
While operating approximately 15 miles northwest of Hue, the Marines spotted an enemy tank.
The TA-4F was armed, so the crew attacked.
As the aircraft pulled away following its first strafing run, disaster struck.
An SA-7 surface-to-air missile hit the Skyhawk.
The damaged aircraft remained airborne.
Ramsbottom managed to nurse the crippled jet back toward Da Nang, but they weren’t going to make the runway.
Approximately 10 miles southeast of Da Nang, over the water, the two Marines had no choice.
They ejected.
And they survived.
Both men were rescued. The Skyhawk Association independently records the May 26 loss of TA-4F BuNo 153508, the SA-7 strike, the ejection southeast of Da Nang, and their rescue. (Skyhawk Association)
For Bruce Boltze, the sea had nearly become his grave.
Instead…
the sea gave him back.
He survived being shot down.
He survived the ejection.
He survived the water.
And then he returned to duty.
Four Months Later
Only 133 days separated Bruce’s survival on May 26 from the mission he flew on October 6.
By then, 1972 had become one of the final years of direct American combat involvement in Vietnam.
Bruce continued doing the dangerous work for which ANGLICO Marines were trained.
Then came:
October 6, 1972.
This time Bruce would fly aboard a very different aircraft.
An Air Force:
OV-10A Bronco
The Bronco was particularly well suited to forward air control and observation missions. Its crew could operate over the battlefield, locate targets, coordinate supporting fire and help bring enormous firepower onto precise locations.
The aircraft Bruce boarded that day carried:
Tail Number 67-14673
Call Sign: COVEY 2
The pilot was:
Lt. Col. Carl Ottis McCormick
United States Air Force
20th Tactical Air Support Squadron
Bruce Boltze was aboard as the Marine observer.
DPAA officially associates Boltze and McCormick with the same loss, and both remain unaccounted for today. (DPAA Military Site)
The Final Mission
Their mission involved forward air control and the direction of naval gunfire off the coast near Da Nang.
The Virtual Wall places them approximately 12 miles north of Da Nang, directing naval gunfire from their OV-10A. (The Virtual Wall)
Think about Bruce’s role.
Somewhere offshore were American naval guns capable of sending enormous firepower toward enemy positions.
But firepower alone was not enough.
Someone had to observe.
Someone had to communicate.
Someone had to help put those rounds where they were needed.
That was the world of ANGLICO.
And on October 6, Bruce Boltze was back in the sky doing that work.
Then something went terribly wrong.
Accounts of the exact final moments differ somewhat in wording. One account describes Covey 2 disappearing from friendly radar while returning from its mission; another describes a catastrophic in-flight explosion followed by the aircraft disintegrating upon impact with the South China Sea. What is certain is that the OV-10 did not return. (P.O.W. Network)
There would be no second ejection story.
No rescue.
No return to Da Nang.
The Search
The following day, a United States Navy vessel located wreckage from the Bronco in the water.
But Bruce Boltze and Carl McCormick were not recovered.
Some fragmented remains and debris were reportedly recovered, but the remains could not be identified as belonging to either man. The services concluded that neither could have survived the catastrophic loss of the aircraft. (The Virtual Wall)
Bruce was subsequently classified:
Killed in Action
Body Not Returned
And that distinction matters.
Bruce Boltze is not simply a Marine who died in Vietnam.
He is still unaccounted for.
DPAA continues to list CWO2 Bruce Edward Boltze, U.S. Marine Corps, with the historical country of loss as South Vietnam and the present geographic area associated with his loss as the South China Sea. His accounting status remains Unaccounted For, and DPAA has categorized his case as Active Pursuit. (P.O.W. Network)
More than half a century later…
America is still looking for Bruce.
The Marine Behind the Rank
Military records can tell us about aircraft, missions, coordinates and casualty classifications.
They are not nearly as good at telling us about the man.
But one Marine remembered him.
Mark A. Miney recalled Bruce coming through his flight-equipment shop on his way to his aircraft.
Miney was a young corporal at the time, carrying the responsibility of being in charge and trying to do his job well.
What stayed with him decades later wasn’t Bruce’s rank.
It was Bruce’s attitude.
Miney remembered that Bruce was “always in good spirits” and had something encouraging to say. (The Virtual Wall)
That’s an extraordinary little window into him.
Because Bruce Boltze was operating in a combat environment where every flight could be the last.
He already knew that better than most.
He had been inside a Skyhawk when a missile hit it.
He had ejected over the sea.
And yet another Marine remembered him not for fear or bitterness…
but for lifting other people up.
A Husband and Father
The remembrances left for Bruce also preserve something even more important.
He was not merely CWO2 Boltze.
He was a husband.
He was a father.
A remembrance attributed to his wife, Carol, described Bruce as a deeply loved husband and father who would never be forgotten.
That changes how we should read the words Body Not Returned.
Those aren’t bureaucratic words.
Behind them was a family waiting for a husband and father who never walked back through the door.
There was no grave containing Bruce’s recovered remains where his family could stand.
There was no final homecoming.
Only questions.
And waiting.
The Bracelet
For many Americans, the POW/MIA bracelet became a deeply personal promise during and after Vietnam.
A person would wear the name of a missing American they had never met.
Day after day.
Year after year.
Bruce’s name was one of those names.
A fellow Marine veteran later remembered wearing a POW/MIA bracelet bearing Bruce Boltze’s name.
Imagine that.
Bruce disappeared into the South China Sea.
But somewhere back in America, his name continued traveling through everyday life on another person’s wrist.
That small metal bracelet said something larger than its size:
We are still waiting.
Two Flights
One Extraordinary Story
There is something haunting about placing Bruce’s two 1972 missions beside each other.
May 26, 1972
TA-4F Skyhawk
BuNo 153508
Enemy tank located.
Attack initiated.
SA-7 missile fired.
Aircraft hit.
Bruce ejects over the water.
Bruce survives.
Then:
October 6, 1972
OV-10A Bronco
67-14673
Call sign:
COVEY 2
Forward air control.
Naval gunfire coordination.
Aircraft lost over the sea.
Wreckage recovered.
Bruce does not come home.
The first time, the sea returned him.
The second time…
America began waiting.
Courts of the Missing
Because Bruce’s remains have never been accounted for, another memorial carries his name.
He is memorialized at the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, commonly known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii. (P.O.W. Network)
There, among thousands of Americans whose remains were never recovered or identified, is another reminder that the Vietnam War did not end for every family when the shooting stopped.
For some families, the war became a question:
Where is he?
The Wall
And in Washington, D.C., another piece of Bruce’s story is carved into black granite.
BRUCE E BOLTZE
Panel 1W
Line 80
Independent Wall listings confirm his placement at 1W/80 and identify his remains status as body not recovered. (War Stories)
Visitors walk past thousands of names.
Some stop at Bruce’s.
Some make a rubbing.
Some leave a flag.
Some may know his story.
Many will not.
That is why we tell it.
Because BRUCE E BOLTZE isn’t simply a name on Panel 1W.
He was the Marine who encouraged a young corporal.
The Marine who climbed aboard dangerous aircraft to coordinate fire for Americans fighting below.
The Marine who survived being shot down by a missile.
The husband.
The father.
The man whose name another veteran carried on a bracelet.
And the Marine America has still not brought home.
Reflection
The First Time the Sea Gave Him Back
There are moments in a person’s life that must feel like receiving another lifetime.
May 26, 1972 must have been one of those moments for Bruce Boltze.
A missile struck his aircraft.
The Skyhawk was dying.
The coastline was still miles away.
He ejected.
And the sea caught him.
Then Americans came.
And brought him back.
One might imagine that surviving such an experience would make a man reluctant ever to climb into another combat aircraft.
But Bruce Boltze was a Marine.
And he had a job to do.
So he went back.
One hundred thirty-three days later, he climbed aboard Covey 2.
He went into the sky again.
And this time…
the sea did not give him back.
But America has never closed the book on Bruce Edward Boltze.
DPAA still lists him as Unaccounted For.
His case remains categorized Active Pursuit. (P.O.W. Network)
That means something.
It means October 6, 1972 was not the final chapter.
It means somewhere inside our government, Bruce Boltze is not merely history.
He is still a Marine we are trying to bring home.
And until that day comes, we will continue doing what his family, fellow Marines and generations of Americans have done for more than half a century.
We will say his name.
BRUCE EDWARD BOLTZE
We will tell his story.
And we will leave a place for him in the formation.
OUR VETERAN OF THE DAY
September 9, 2026
The Micky Spano Radio Show proudly honors:
CWO2 BRUCE EDWARD BOLTZE
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
Born: January 31, 1938
Home of Record: Flint, Michigan
Unit: Sub Unit 1, 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company
Final Mission: October 6, 1972
Aircraft: OV-10A Bronco, 67-14673
Call Sign: Covey 2
Pilot: Lt. Col. Carl Ottis McCormick, USAF
Status: Killed in Action, Body Not Returned
Accounting Status: Unaccounted For
DPAA Analytical Category: Active Pursuit
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Panel 1W • Line 80 (P.O.W. Network)
TWICE HE FLEW INTO DANGER.
ONCE THE SEA RETURNED HIM.
ONCE IT DID NOT.
54 YEARS LATER, AMERICA IS STILL WAITING.
CWO2 Bruce Edward Boltze is not forgotten.
He is not merely missing from our history.
He is missing from home.
Semper Fidelis, Marine.
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