Identity
Person No.
33062
Old ROH no.
2143
Service No.
P1/40016
Last Name
First Name
Robert Leslie
Initials
R L
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
23
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,780
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action, in North American F-51 Mustang #374. 2Lt R.L. Staats had just recently returned for a second tour of operations, and was authorised to test Mustang 374, which had just undergone a maintenance check. He was seen circling K-10 airfield but when he failed to land after half an hour, attempts were made to contact him from the Control Tower, but he failed to respond. A message was almost immediately received that a Mustang had crashed into Chinhae Bay. A search failed to find any trace of him or his aircraft, and only three days later was the aircraft eventually found. South Korean divers recovered 2Lt Staats' body
Military Service
Branch
Air Force
Rank
Second Lieutenant
Regiment
Unit
Unknown
Secondary Unit
Army
Defence Force
UDF 24,808
Union Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Memorial
Memorial
Location
Tanggok, Nam District, Busan, South Korea
Address
Coordinates
Panel
On the panel
Alternative Commemoration until grave found
Unit History
Part of
Notes
ref. 85 years of SAAF
Research notes
5 Sep 2026: Unit "2 Squadron" (a squadron, SAAF's regiment-equivalent) promoted to Regiment, per John's decision. Corps (South African Air Force) unchanged.
Citations
Unknown
External References
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea
open source ↗
United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK), Busan — South African Korean War dead.
Stories 1
2Lt R.L. Staats had just recently returned for a second tour of operations, and was authorised to test Mustang 374, which had just undergone a maintenance check. He was seen circling K-10 airfield but when he failed to land after half an hour, attempts were made to contact him from the Control Tower, but he failed to respond. A message was almost immediately received that a Mustang had crashed into Chinhae Bay. A search failed to find any trace of him or his aircraft, and only three days later was the aircraft eventually found. South Korean divers recovered 2Lt Staats' body and he was buried in the UN cemetery at Pusan.
Dedications
No dedications have been added yet.