Ronald Wayne Forrester was born in 1947, and lived in Odessa, Texas.

Throughout all his life, he aspired to have a military career.

When he was a young boy, he would organize pretend armies and battles with his
friends.
During these, he endeavoured to keep the simulation as accurate as possible, and
demonstrated understanding for many aspects of military action.
He had, at one time, constructed a homemade parachute apparatus---unfortunately,
his plan to test it was foiled by his father, who saw the danger in the situation.
Even then, his desire to become a military pilot for the United States was showing.

He wanted to join the United States Air Force Academy, which admitted only two
cadets from each congressional district each year.
He applied, but did not get in.
After this, his guidance counselor and some of his teachers said that his
aspirations could still become reality at A&M University.
He got in, and with a partial academic scholarship.
The first major he chose was aerospace engineering; but, within one semester,
changed it to civil engineering.
He graduated in 1969, with the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps---
while he wanted to join the Air Force, he had promised that he would join the
Marines, and he never broke a promise.

The Marine All Weather Attack Squadron 533 was deployed to Nam Phong in Thailand in
June, 1972.
Ron was assigned to the squadron in August of 1972; on the 28th of that month, he
arrived in Nam Phong.
While traveling there and waiting to be processed, he had stopped in Hiroshima,
Japan, and visited Peace Memorial Park, which is dedicated to those affected by the
atomic bomb that was dropped there (the memorial is located very close to where the
blast took place).
This visit was very touching for him; and he also had to contemplate what he would
be doing as part of Squadron 533
But he always had the philosophy that, sometimes, peace could only come after war.

The squadron was to fly night missions of Vietnam, involving one airplane.
Generally, they would be bombing some target.
While Ron was in Vietnam, he wrote twenty-three letters to his parents.
Each one ended with a request to give Karoni [his daughter] a kiss for me.
(After he had graduated, he married Jana Hamilton, with whom he had a daughter.)
In these letters, he talked about his experiences in Vietnam, such as a Bob Hope
show.
Even though he wrote about the negative aspects of war, he maintained a fairly
optimistic and positive attitude in them.

His last letter home was sent on December 25th of 1972.

A quote from it: I flew number forty-six on Christmas eve. I shouldn't have any
trouble getting a hundred missions before this thing is over.
On the 27th, a mission was assigned to him and Captain Jim Chipman.
Jim and Ron frequently flew together.
Their mission was a night bombing mission; they would be observing a road, and
then, if there was a viable target for destruction, they would drop a bomb on it.
There was a secondary target if there wasnt a suitable target found by the
reconaissance.
This mission was, of course, for a single plane; there would be no other aircraft
that had visual contact with them.
The aircraft did not return.

It was estimated that their plane would have run out of fuel around 10:44~{p.m}.
The last contact with Ground Control was at 8:20~{p.m}.
Both men were listed as Missing In Action.
Two men came to Rons parents house and informed them of what had happened---or at
least of everything they knew that happened.
A letter was sent home as well; it discussed some of the possibilities of what
could have happened, and the actions that would be taken in those cases.
Ron is still {M.I.A.}, and his family still wonders about precisely what happened.
He is survived by his daughter, Karoni, and her daughter.