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*Names of Officers were given to me by Captain Jim Perso HOLDEMAN,
Robert Eugene; Capt., USMC; MIA: Yes; Panel: 30E Line 85 WALLACE,
Hobart McKinley, Jr.; LtCol., USMC; MIA: Yes; Panel: 34E Line 82 CLEM,
Thomas Dean, Capt., USMCR; MIA: Yes; Panel: 54E Line 24 FICKLER,
Edwin James; Capt., USMCR; MIA: Yes; Panel: 34W Line 23 KUHLMAN,
Robert John, Jr.; Major, USMC; MIA: Yes; Panel: 34W Line 23 LONO,
Luther Albert; LtCol, USMC; MIA: Yes; Panel: 17W Line 18 CURRAN, Patrick:
Lt., USMC, MIA: Yes; Panel: Panel: 17W Line 18 McGarvey, James
Maurice: Major; USMC; MIA: Yes; Panel 18e Line 42 Carlton, James
Edmund, Jr.: Capt. USMC; MIA: Yes; Panel 18e Line 39 Fanning, Hugh
Michael.: Capt.: USMC; MIA: ???; Panel 28e Line 103 Kott, James Jay:
Capt.: USMC; MIA: ???; Panel 18e Line 104 Stevenson, Thomas
G. Jr.: LCpl., USMC; MIA: No; Panel 31w Line 24 Davis, Richard
Glen: LCpl; USMC; MIA: No; Panel 29e Line 2 Bio's of
Personnel and Synopsis of Incident
On 29 September, 1969, Maj. Luther A. Lono, pilot; and 1Lt.Patrick R. Curran, bombardier> navigator were dispatched aboard an A6A to conduct an armed reconnaissance mission in support of Seventh U.S. Air Force operations over Laos. The mission was under the control of an Air Force Airborne Tactical Air Control aircraft, and was to be conducted in a heavily defended enemy area. The mission proceeded without incident until 8:50 p.m., at which time the Airborne Tactical Air Control aircraft lost contact with the Lono/Curran aircraft. Their last radio contact had been about 25 miles west of Khe Sanh. Attempts to contact the aircraft were unsuccessful, and at 10:30 p.m., the commanding officer of the 11th Aircraft Group 11 declared them "overdue". At this declaration, electronic search efforts began for the crew members, and a signal was received by the Tactical Air Control aircraft at 0248 hours on September 30 which was believed to be a signal from an emergency transmitter. Subsequent attempts to contact the crew were unsuccessful. A visual search began at dawn on September 30, but no sign of the crew or aircraft was found. Both
men were placed in "MIA" status. Presumptive Findings
of Death for the two were issued: 28 Aug 1978 for
Curran; 28 November 1978 for Lono.
Two fellow Marines that I served with have come home. To read a touching poem about Major Lono by CPL Dean F. Glorso Click HERE. HOLDEMAN, ROBERT EUGENE
REMAINS RETURNED 06/26/97 UNITED STATES AIR FORCE NEWS RELEASE The remains of FIVE American service members previously unaccounted for from Southeast Asia have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States. Their remains will be repatriated in a ceremony at 4:00 pm June 26 on the Travis flight line. They are identified as LT.COL. LEWIS H. ABRAMS, MARINE CORPS, of Montclair, N.J.; MAJ. ROBERT E. HOLDEMAN, MARINE CORPS. of Winchester, Ind.; and CAPTAIN JOHN N. FLANIGAN, MARINE CORPS, of Winter Haven, Fla. THE NAMES OF TWO AIR FORCE AVIATORS WILL NOT BE RELEASED AT THE REQUEST OF THEIR FAMILIES. On Nov. 25, 1967, Abrams and Holdeman were shot down while flying a night strike mission near Haiphong, North Vietnam. A radio Peking broadcast confirmed the Marine Corps aircraft had been shot down in the vicinity of Haiphong. In 1988 the Socialist Republic of Vietnam repatriated what they believed to be the remains of U.S. service personnel lost during the Vietnam War. Included in the remains was a military identification card fragment with what appeared to be the name Abrams. In 1993 and 1995, joint U.S. and Vietnamese teams investigated and excavated a crash site in Hai Phong Province. Local villagers reported that remains had previously recovered and turned over to higher authorities. They also turned over bone fragments found near the crash site. On August 19, 1969, Flanigan and his pilot were flying an F-4B as escort for a photo recon mission over North Vietnam. They lost contact with other aircraft in their flight, and never made it back to their base at Danang, South Vietnam. In 1989, the Vietnamese government repatriated remains believed to be those of Flanigan. Four subsequent joint US and Vietnamese investigations were able to locate their crash site in Quang Binh Province. The site was excavated in 1995 where aircraft wreckage, aircrew related items, and personnel effects were located, but NO human remains were found. The remains of Flanigan turned over by the Vietnamese were positively identified and Mitochondrial DNA testing was used to confirm the identification. With the identification of these FIVE service members, 2118 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. To read more about Col. Abrams go to this website http://www.virtualwall.org/da/AbramsLH01a.htm . WALLACE, HOBART MCKINLEY, JR
Name: Hobart McKinley
Wallace Jr. MURRAY, PATRICK PETER
Name: Patrick Peter Murray REMARKS: Vinh Phu 5 miles East/Southeast of Phu Tho CACCF/CRASH/AIRCREW/POSTHUMOUS PROMOTION. No further information available at this time.
SYNOPSIS:
Senate Select Committee Report: North
Vietnam (1156) On May 3, 1968, Avery and Clem were the crew in an A-6A on an armed reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam providing support to U.S. Air Force operations along Route Package 1. Radar contact was lost with the aircraft when it was approximately 10 kilometers northwest of the coastal town of Dong Hoi and six kilometers southeast of the district seat of Bo Trach in Quang Binh Province. SAR forces were unable to locate any sign of the crew which was declared missing. Returning U.S. POWs were unable to provide any information on the eventual fate of the crew. After Operation Homecoming they were declared killed in action, body not recovered, based on a presumptive finding of death. In January 1991, a U.S. team in Vietnam visited Bo Trach District and reviewed archival documents. One document listed the downing of an A-6A on May 3, 1968 in which both crewmen died. In July 1991, U.S. researchers at the Military Region IV museum in Vinh City obtained access to an archival list of gravesites of Americans who died there during the war. One entry listed Robert D. Avery as buried in Quang Ninh District from an F-105 downed on April 15, 1968. In January 1992, a Region IV air defense record listed an A6A downed on May 3, 1968 with both crewmen dead. In December 1992, a copy of the list of burial sites was turned over by Vietnam to Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. In 1995, nearly three
decades after Clem's and Avery's
plane disappeared, a joint U.S.-Vietnamese team was probing the coast of
Vietnam for another airplane, part of a continuing effort to locate unaccounted
for veterans.
KUHLMAN, ROBERT JOHN, JR.
Name: Robert John Kuhlman Jr. REMARKS: CACCF/CRASH/PILOT/QUANG TRI On the evening of 17 January 1969 the crew of an A6A Intruder conducting direct air support and armed reconnaissance missions in the vicinity of the Ashau Valley, Republic of Vietnam. The Ashau Valley parallels the Vietnam/Laos border and is approximately 30 miles southwest of the city of Hue. The aircraft departed Da Nang Air Base at 8:43pm, and arrived in the Ashau Valley area at approximately 8:50pm. Upon arriving in the area, the Bombardier/Navigator, Robert Kuhlman, contacted the Forward Air Controller for assignment of missions. At 9:25pm the Forward Air Controller passed a target to the aircraft which appeared in the northern portion of the Valley. The Controller of the mission attempted to contact the aircraft at 9:45pm to assign another target; this attempt was met with negative results. Further attempts were made to make contact but in each instance the results were negative. Search operations were initiated at 10:25pm and continued throughout the night. The following day visual, electronic and photographic searches were conducted until 12:30pm on 22 January 1969. All searches failed to reveal any sign of the aircraft. The possibility that the aircraft crashed in the target area can only be presumed. The airborne controller did observe what appeared to be an explosion, which he assumed at that time was a bomb cluster followed by a secondary explosion. It was known that the enemy possessed antiaircraft weapons in the vicinity of the Ashau Valley.
REMARKS: On April 17, 1967, Major James M. McGarvey, pilot, and Capt. James E. Carlton, Jr., systems operator, were assigned a mission against a well defended target located approximately twenty miles southeast of Vinh, Nghe An Province, North Vietnam. At 11:12 p.m., during McGarvey's attack run, the aircraft trailing McGarvey's by approximately eight miles reported seeing a brilliant orange flash mushrooming from the area of the lead aircraft, after which no radio contact could be established with the aircraft. Search and rescue operations were initiated and lasted until April 26, 1967, with negative results. Both McGarvey and Carlton were declared Missing in Action. Throughout the war, the McGarvey and Carlton families waited, knowing it was possible that their men had been captured, even though they heard no word of either of them. At the end of the war, however, when 591 Americans were released from POW camps, McGarvey and Carlton were not among them. The Vietnamese denied any knowledge of them. It is unlikely that the aircraft carrying McGarvey and Carlton was sighted, shot down, exploded into a brilliant orange flash and crashed in a heavily defended area without being detected by the Vietnamese. It is unlikely that no information is available on their fates, although the Vietnamese continue to deny knowledge of them.
KOTT, STEPHEN JAY REMAINS RETURNED - 07/17/84 - Family does NOT accept I.D. Name: Stephen Jay Kott Rank/Branch: O3/US Marine Corps Unit: 1st Marine Air Wing, Da Nang Date of Birth: 12 May 1940 Home City of Record: Greenville SC Date of Loss: 31 October 1967 Country of Loss: North Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 205000N 1061200E (XJ248040) Status (in 1973): Missing In Action Category: 2 Acft/Vehicle/Ground: A6A Refno: 0886 Other Personnel in Incident: Hugh M. Fanning (remains returned)
REMARKS: On October 31, 1967, Capt. Fanning and bombardier/navigator
Capt. Stephen J. Kott were sent on a mission over North Vietnam as
number two in a flight of two aircraft on a night electronics support
mission. Their radio code name was "Oatmeal." At about 1:50 a.m.,
Fanning indicated he was approaching the target. At 2:02 a.m., the
leader observed a bright orange flash in the vicinity of the target area
and in the estimated position of Fanning's aircraft which he estimated
to be about 15 miles east of Hanoi at an altitude of 100-500 feet. It
was believed that Fanning and Kott could have survived the crash of the
aircraft, and the two were classified Missing in Action. The U.S.
believed that the Vietnamese could account for them. Several reports
surfaced concerning the crash of Fanning's and Kott's plane in the
ensuing years, including one account that Kott was killed in the crash,
but Fanning was captured and taken away by jeep. The accuracy of these
reports is uncertain. In August, 1984, remains were returned by the
Vietnamese propertied to be those of Fanning and Kott.
For more on this story check the following website out. To my knowledge, which is constantly being updated, only two enlisted men were killed during VMA(AW)242's tour in Vietnam. Their bio's follow. Stevenson, Thomas G., Jr.
Name: Thomas G. Stevenson, Jr. When the rocket struck the hanger, I was climbing into my assigned defensive revetment bunker. It was about 30 feet away from where Stevenson was hit. I did not see the incident happen. I saw Stevenson within 3 - 5 seconds after he was struck. Medical assistance was summoned but to no avail. Davis, Richard Glen Name: Richard Glen
Davis **** Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project and the P.O.W. NETWORK 2 April 1992 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews and the Senate Select Committee Hearing Report. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998. **** |
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