VA VA - William Herman Rener, 35, Hampton, 26 Dec 1966

[Gardener1850]

William Herman Rener was serving in the U.S. Air Force as a MSgt when he was last seen December 26, 1966 in Hampton, Virginia. William Herman Rener was granted three weeks of leave and never returned. William Herman Rener was stationed in Newport News, Virginia. William Herman Rener is 35 years old as of the date he went missing in December, 1966. William Rener is described as a white male standing 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing approximately 147 to 154 pounds. William Rener has brown hair and gray eyes. William Rener has a 6 inch surgical scar on the right lower quadrant of his abdomen and a 1 inch irregular traumatic scar on his right index finger. Fingerprint information is available through NAMUS. If you have any information about the whereabouts of William Herman Rener, contact John Fine with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations at 571-305-8620 reference case #ICON-D-085-A–33298151621. (NamUs MP # 38175)

Read more: http://www.missingveterans.com/1966/william-herman-rener/

Dental information / charting is currently not available

DNA Status: Sample is currently not available

Fingerprint information is available and entered

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/38175/

 

[alb1on]

There is a bit more info out there. A post on Ancestry from 2005 gives his birth as 30 October 1930 in Missouri and that he was married with four children. At The Terre Haute Tribune from Terre Haute, Indiana on October 26, 1967 · Page 17 there is a record of his wife filing for divorce, presumably due to his disappearance.

1966 was right at the time of significant numbers of soldiers going awol and draftees leaving to avoid Vietnam. However, Rener would be a very unusual case of this happening. He had a marriage dating back to the 50s (when at least some of his children were born). He was a Master Sergeant with at least 10 years service (since there is a record of one of his children being born in Bitburg, Germany in the 50s when he was serving overseas. So it seems more likely there is another explanation. This is reinforced by an extract from a book at The Reuben Atkinson Story . This says,

"My supervisor and chief of the officer personnel section at Bitburg Air Base Germany was Staff Sergeant William H Rener. He was one of the most knowledgeable people I had ever known in my career.......many senior officers would come in our office and ask him personnel related questions." So, not only long service military, but also highly regarded.

Given the character and circumstances this is an odd a military disappearance as I can recall, suggesting something bad happened when he was on leave.

 

[Richard]

It makes little sense that a career Air Force non commissioned officer with so many years of service and a large family would choose to become a deserter. More likely a victim of foul play.

Unfortunately, because of military regulations and procedures, he would have been declared a deserter (administratively) after being 30 days over his leave. Obviously he is still on the Air Force Deserter list, since the investigating agency is the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

LINK:

Air Force Office of Special Investigations > About > Air Force Fugitives

 

[alb1on]

It seems that Master Sergeant William H Rener was not quite the upstanding soldier and family man that he appeared. In 1964 he was the other party in a contested divorce case before the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. He was accused of being the lover of Bonnie Peele Gibson, the wife of Chalmers Erwin Gibson. Whilst he denied everything, he was identified by numerous witnesses and the court believed them (and that he was lying) as they awarded child custody to the husband (and the divorce). The pdf of the full transcript, including testimony of witnesses, can be found at https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.ed...-supreme-court-records-vol207&type=additional

Is it possible that Sergeant Rener was a victim of a wronged husband (or their friends). It seems probable that if he behaved this way once that he may have continued to do so. Interestingly, Chalmers Gibson (the husband in the case above) died in a car crash in 1991 and his biography on 'find a grave' notes that " He was an avid sportsman and was known to his friends as "The Hunter"."!

 

[meanmaryjean]

A husband being awarded custody in the 60s was rare indeed. I know this because my father was (we are told) the first man awarded custody of his children (FIVE girls!!!) in Indiana barring incarceration of the mother.

 

[Richard]

William Herman Rener

• 

Rener, circa 1966

• Missing Since 12/26/1966
• Missing From Hampton, Virginia
• Classification Missing
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Date of Birth 10/30/1930 (89)
• Age 36 years old
• Height and Weight 5'7, 147 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, gray eyes. Rener has a six-inch surgical scar on the lower right side of his abdomen, and a one-inch irregular scar on his right index finger.

Details of Disappearance

Rener was last seen in Hampton, Virginia on December 26, 1966. He was a master sergeant in the Air Force, stationed in Newport News, Virginia. He was granted three weeks of leave, but he never returned from his leave and has never been heard from again.

Rener had been in the military for at least ten years by the time of his disappearance, and was well-regarded in the ranks. He was married and had four children. Few details are available in his case.

Investigating Agency

• Air Force Office of Special Investigations 571-305-8536

Source Information

• NamUs
• Missing Veterans
• Websleuths
• William Herman Rener – The Charley Project

 

[Cimatico]

Enhanced image from source http://charleyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/rener_william.jpg

https://www.namus.gov/api/CaseSets/NamUs/MissingPersons/Cases/38175/Images/74369/Original

 

[MadMcGoo]

Added to NamUs today: The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Any thoughts on PMI? I'm not sure about the length of time.

 

[Richard]

Missing for 55 Years...

MSGT William Herman Rener, USAF, Age 35

Missing since 26 December 1966

• Missing From Hampton, Virginia
• Classification Missing
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Date of Birth 10/30/1930 (90)
• Age 36 years old
• Height and Weight 5'7, 147 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, gray eyes. Rener has a six-inch surgical scar on the lower right side of his abdomen, and a one-inch irregular scar on his right index finger.

Details of Disappearance

Rener was last seen in Hampton, Virginia on December 26, 1966. He was a master sergeant in the Air Force, stationed in Newport News, Virginia. He was granted three weeks of leave, but he never returned from his leave and has never been heard from again.

Rener had been in the military for at least ten years by the time of his disappearance, and was well-regarded in the ranks. He was married and had four children. Few details are available in his case.

Investigating Agency

• Air Force Office of Special Investigations 571-305-8536

Source Information

• NamUs
• Missing Veterans
• William Herman Rener – The Charley Project

 

[alb1on]

It seems as though he may have had even more reason to disappear than previously suggested. He had been court martialled and found guilty of adultery, unlawful cohabitation and making a false expense claim, and sentenced to 6 months hard labour, reduction of rank and a bad conduct discharge (see United States v. Rener, 17 C.M.A. 65, 37 C.M.R. 329, 17 USCMA 65 (1967) | Caselaw Access Project which is the appeal record). When he appealed the verdict the guilty findings on adultery and the false claim were set aside, but this was in June 1967 and he would not have known that his appeal would (in part) succeed when he went missing. What I do find odd is that the record of the appeal makes no reference to him having gone AWOL. I assume the adultery and unlawful cohabitation charges were related to the divorce case in which he was cited in 1964 (see my earlier posts).

Given this information I am now leaning toward him having gone missing voluntarily. It certainly changes the description of him as being well regarded.

 

[MadMcGoo]

It seems as though he may have had even more reason to disappear than previously suggested. He had been court martialled and found guilty of adultery, unlawful cohabitation and making a false expense claim, and sentenced to 6 months hard labour, reduction of rank and a bad conduct discharge (see United States v. Rener, 17 C.M.A. 65, 37 C.M.R. 329, 17 USCMA 65 (1967) | Caselaw Access Project which is the appeal record). When he appealed the verdict the guilty findings on adultery and the false claim were set aside, but this was in June 1967 and he would not have known that his appeal would (in part) succeed when he went missing. What I do find odd is that the record of the appeal makes no reference to him having gone AWOL. I assume the adultery and unlawful cohabitation charges were related to the divorce case in which he was cited in 1964 (see my earlier posts).

Given this information I am now leaning toward him having gone missing voluntarily. It certainly changes the description of him as being well regarded.

Yeah, I was kind of on the fence between foul play and voluntarily disappearing. Either way, he could be anywhere.

 

[Richard]

... What I do find odd is that the record of the appeal makes no reference to him having gone AWOL....

He would have been declared "Unauthorized Absence" (UA) when he did not return from his leave. After 30 more days passed, the Marine Corps would have administratively declared him a Deserter. These were NOT charges for which he stood trial, and would NOT have been considered in any way by the JAG officers who considered his appeal.

 

[rob525]

I was reading through the court documents. That whole situation is pretty convoluted. The husband had known for 7+ years that his wife had been likely cheating on him and known of Rener for about three years. Seems like if he was mad enough to kill over it, the deed would have been done prior to December 1966. I did see that a child was conceived at some point and there seems to be some confusion regarding paternity. I wonder if there was a combination of issues that cause this guy to take off.