The Privateer crew

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Latviešu valodā

Lt. j.g. Robert D. Reynolds, USN
Lt. j.g. Robert D. Reynolds, U.S. Navy, January 1949. The Navy’s caption on the print: “He was lost in a PB4Y-2 ‘Privateer’ of VP-26 circa 8 April 1950, over the Baltic, when shot down by Soviet planes.” (U.S. Navy photograph NH 101744)

This page addresses the Soviet shoot-down of a U.S. Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer on 8 April 1950, and later reports concerning its crew.

Status: Analysis and argument — PIP’s own questions, built on declassified U.S. government records it cites directly.

Reported location of incident
The Privateer was shot down over the Baltic Sea on 8 April 1950, off the Latvian coast near Liepāja. The marker shows the approximate reported area; no wreck site has ever been produced, and Soviet salvage of the aircraft was ordered kept secret. Position approximate.
Lt. Howard W. Seeschaf, USN
Lt. Howard W. Seeschaf, U.S. Navy, September 1949 — “one of the pilots of a VP-26 PB4Y-2 ‘Privateer’ shot down by Soviet planes over the Baltic circa 8 April 1950.” (U.S. Navy photograph NH 101746)

The man

Lt. j.g. Robert Reynolds left a widow, Jane, and two daughters, Christina and Carolyn. Jane was still writing U.S. officials about him in 1991. (State Department release as summarized in PIP records; Unconfirmed by PIP.)

Some PIP questions on reported survivors of the “Privateer”

A 1956 State Department message to Moscow states that the United States is “compelled to believe that the Soviet Government has had and continues to have under detention crew members from the Privateer…” The message cites some of the reported live sightings. A CIA report describes an American held at a prison in Lemberg, now Lviv, Ukraine, in the spring of 1949, with the words “U.S. Navy” and an anchor tattooed on his chest. That date falls a year before the Privateer loss. U.S. documents indicate the CIA may also have held information on crewman Joe Danens.

PIP argues there may be another reason the U.S. government was “compelled to believe” some of the Privateer’s crew had been captured. A declassified 1954 Navy document concludes that the Soviet Navy appeared to be operating captured U.S. electronic equipment: “In view of the successful salvaging and operation of the electronic equipment, there exists the possibility that some or all of the crew were taken into custody and are being held by the Soviets.”

Request for information

Please contact us if you can help with any of the following.

  1. Accounts from former prisoners, guards or officials of the Soviet camp and prison system of American Navy fliers held after April 1950, including crewman Joe Danens.
  2. Soviet records or recollections of the salvage of the Privateer and of any crew recovered.
  3. The burial places of any of the crew.

In 1956 the State Department told Moscow it was compelled to believe the Soviets held crew members. The Navy concluded the Soviets were operating equipment salvaged from the aircraft. Did the crew die in the Baltic? Or were some pulled from the water and taken into the camps, where Gulag survivors later reported them?

Write to contact@powinvestigativeproject.org. We treat every approach in confidence.

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