10 June 1969: The U.S. Air Force donated the first North American Aviation X-15, serial number 56-6670, to the Smithsonian Institution for display at the National Air and Space Museum. The first of three X-15A hypersonic research rocketplanes built by North American for the Air Force and the National Advisory Committee (NACA, the predecessor of NASA), 56-6670 made the first glide flight and
Robert Arthur Saucier began his tour in Vietnam as an Airman 2nd Class/Still Photographic Specialist with the 600th Photo Squadron on October 23, 1966.
On July 1, 1967 “A2C Saucier was a backseater in an F-100 taking combat photographs when the aircraft was hit by ground fire. An emergency landing was attempted at Bien Hoa AB. Apparently, the aircraft ran out of fuel, made a hard landing and the aircraft rolled over into a drainage ditch, drowning A2C Saucier. He had 15 combat missions at his death.”(1)
Robert Arthur Saucier is buried at Rose Hill Memorial Park, Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas, and is honored on the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington DC. Name inscribed at VVM Wall, Panel 22e, Line 92.
Sources: Photo/Bio Info – HonorStates.org; Add’l photos vvmf.org; (1) Saucier, Robert, A2C – Welcome to USAF Combat Camera; Findagrave.com
