WASHINGTON – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that as of September 27, 2022 they accounted for U.S. Navy Commander Frederick Rutherford Schrader, 31, who had been declared MIA during World War II.
Schrader (U.S. Naval Academy, 1935) served as Commander of Air Group Eleven (CVG-11) embarked aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-12). On October 13, 1944 Schrader’s Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat crashed in shallow water after he suffered anti-aircraft fire while strafing a seaplane base over the Japanese-controlled island of Formosa. Unable to identify his remains following the war, the Department of Defense (DOD) listed him as Missing in Action (MIA).
In November of 2018, Matthew Robins (U.S. Naval Academy, 2004) reached out to George Retelas (film director of “Eleven”) and Tim Hampton (Air Group Eleven historian) after watching the WWII documentary “Eleven” (www.ElevenTheMovie.com). Robins believed he had information regarding the resting place of Schrader. For the next four years Robins, Retelas and Hampton (volunteers for the USS Hornet Museum) examined historical records, contacted the Schrader family, and provided DPAA with forensic details of the case. DPAA is an agency within the DOD that works to recover American military personnel listed as POW or MIA.
Schrader is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines, and in Memorial Hall at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He was buried as “Unknown” in Plot F-175 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. Stay tuned for more details!
