T-R PHOTO BY MIKE DONAHEY Bradley Gene Cuthbert's name is displayed as missing in action on the Marshall County section of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It is on the grounds of the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown. Maj. Cuthbert was a USAF pilot. The memorial was installed in 1992.

Editor’s Note: This is the eighth story in a series of nine honoring the 32 men from Grundy, Hardin, Marshall and Tama counties who perished during the Vietnam War including one man initially considered as missing-in-action. From Nov. 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975, the conflict raged in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Nearly 3 million service men and women served in the war theater – of which 115,000 Iowans served in Vietnam. The war claimed the lives of 58,220 Americans including 868 Iowans. There were an estimated 250,000 South Vietnamese troops killed, according to military sources. As a tribute, the Times-Republican is listing at a minimum — the rank, full name, branch of service, home town — and if available date of birth, death, age and burial location of those who perished. The information was obtained courtesy of the Central Iowa Vietnam Veterans Involvement Committee archives, findagrave.com and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s (VVMF) “Wall of Faces.” Dan Gannon of the Des Moines area and a Vietnam combat veteran provided the Iowa Vietnam War Memorial Directory of Names. Kennan Seda, historian of the Sons of the American Legion Post 73 in Tama provided biographical details. Additional information was submitted by family and friends. The sixth installment — published May 7 — featured six fallen veterans from Tama County. Today’s installment features Maj. Bradley Gene Cuthbert, United States Air Force, who once resided in Marshalltown.

From the Vietnam War came hundreds of thousands of stories of uncertainty and, for the family of a former Marshalltown serviceman, their lack of complete closure lasted 23 years.

Maj. Bradley Gene Cuthbert — USAF — was declared dead by the U.S. military, May 22, 1975 after initially being declared missing in action on Nov. 23, 1968.

On Nov. 23, 1968, his 28th birthday, Cuthbert was assigned as an electronics systems officer on a photo reconnaissance mission. He and his co-pilot, Capt. Mark Ruhling, were shot down over Dong Hoi, North Vietnam. Ruhling saw Cuthbert parachute down, but contact was lost. Ruhling was captured and kept prisoner with other American prisoners-of-war (POWs) and released at war’s end.

Ruhling said he never saw Cuthbert in any North Vietnamese prison camps.

“My father was a powerfully charismatic man,” wrote Shannon Cuthbert Sassen in an email to the T-R in April. “He moved our family to Marshalltown in the late 1960s to be with my mom’s sister Barb (nee Zahn) Wollam and her family while he served his deployment. He was a fighter/reconnaissance jet pilot based at the USAF base in Udorn, Thailand.

He and his co-pilot were completing a reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam when their jet was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. They were flying low due to heavy clouds to get the photos they were tasked with taking. This put them in missile range.”

Sassen wrote that her father was listed by the USAF as missing-in-action.

Later, a North Vietnamese news report described the capture of another pilot, which led to speculation it might have been Cuthbert.

“I met you (Maj. Cuthbert) at a party at my parent’s house in McLean, VA. in 1967, I believe,” wrote Capt. W.W. Richards USAF (Ret.) in a 2013 post on “Wall of Faces.” “You showed me some chords on my guitar. I have been wearing your (POW remembrance) bracelet for many years. I think about you often.”

However, on Dec. 20, 1991, remains attributed to Cuthbert were announced as being positively identified by the U.S. military, according to pownetwork.org.

“These unbelievably courageous men paid for our freedom by sacrificing their lives,” wrote Sassen. “They certainly fully deserve all the recognition, respect and praise we have and can bestow. Due to our loss of my father, my mother Connie (nee Zahn) Cuthbert Montover never moved our family away. My brother Bradley Curtis (Curt) Cuthbert and I were raised in Marshalltown. Our mother passed away in 2020, in Marshalltown. She was as dynamic and charismatic as our father.”

Wrote Bradley (Curtis) Cuthbert to the T-R in April:

“It is interesting that April 30 is the 50th anniversary of the end of the war. Our mother passed away on April 30th as well. A significant date in the family history.”

Wrote Bruce Peterson in a “Wall of Faces” post in 2013:

“I grew up in Marshalltown with Curt and Shannon. They never gave up hope and honored you every day of their lives. God bless.”