h/t CW at daily timewaster
Decided to do a 'net dig on that plane, just because.
Note to self: Be careful what you dig up. Probably better not to do that.
Wouldn't you know:
F-4 tail number 63-7656
"with 497th TFS, 8th TFT shot down by unknown gunfire while attacking boats near Ba Don, Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam Mar 3, 1967. Crew MIA"
Unit: The Night Owls
Station: Ubon Thailand '65-'74.
 |
| Maj Floyd Richardson |
"Major Floyd W. Richardson was the pilot, and Lt.Col. Charles D. Roby the weapons/systems operator of an F4C Phantom fighter/bomber dispatched on a combat mission over North Vietnam on March 3, 1967. At a point near Ba Don in Quang Binh Province, the aircraft was shot down. Neither man was recovered, and both were classified Missing in Action.
When American prisoners were released from POW camps in 1973, Richardson and Roby were not among them. The Vietnamese denied any knowledge of them. Then in late 1989, it was announced that the Vietnamese had "discovered" the remains of Richardson and Roby and had returned them to U.S. control. For these two pilots, at least, the war was finally over.
Richardson and Roby were among nearly 2500 who remained unaccounted for at the end of the war. Of this number, nearly 100 were known to have been prisoners of war, yet were not returned. Others were mentioned by name by the Vietnamese to other U.S. prisoners, yet did not return. Military authorities were horrified in 1973 that "hundreds" thought to be prisoner were not released."
It's amazing what you can find out on the internet with a few mouse clicks.
references:
https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/r/r015.htm
https://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1963.html
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air ....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
11 comments:
High Flight is appropriate. May they rest in peace. And yes, many aviators 'disappeared' never to be seen again.
Yes. And what will burn as long as I live is the probability that some of them were retained as prisoners years after the peace accords were signed.
Hanoi should have been leveled to the ground and then the rubble bounced until it was dust. Fuck the pols who dragged the war out for fun and profit. It would have saved tens of thousands of American lives and millions of Vietnamese lives.
Also, Fuck Joe Xi Den!
We still have no accounting from Russia for the US Army troops sent to help the White army against Lenins' Reds in 1919, nor of the aircrews who landed in Russia after the bombing run from England against the oilfields in Ploesti.
John in Indy
You can thank John McCain the treasonous bastard for leaving men behind
I spent some time in past drinking with nam vets... make it safe enough, and eventually you'll hear stories.
After a couple weeks, anyone who can do math has figured out they are never going home. Does it really matter *how* you die?
The dead are capable of things the living cannot consider... just ask the inner city youts.
This is the type of thing that still bring me to tears; returning MIAs back home and giving closure to the families and loved ones. I've gone to a few funerals of strangers who were recovered and identified, and for many years I had the "You Are Not Forgotten" flag, and the bumper sticker on my car. A DoD contractor I worked for told me to remove it, as it was deemed political.
I had a loud argument with a prominent Libertarian writer in the 1980s, who decried the tax money being spent on IDing and recovery of the missing. He had the pompous attitude that welfare was fine, but not veterans, nor the recovery. That was my first real break with the Ivory Tower crowd, but not my last.
I'm glad these two are home, and at eternal rest.
(It seems disrespectful to use my normal moniker on something like this, so I'll save that for another time.)
Who photo shopped that guy filling the tank?!
During the 2020 "election" there were quite a bit of "Active Duty" military members born in the 1930s to 1950s who "voted" (especially in Georgia) via overseas absentee "ballots" .
The only way that I can conceive that someone could have been born that early and be technically "Active duty" would be if they were MIAs.
More proof the rot goes back in time, since we didn't even try to get them back.
"I hate these... nabobs... oh how I hate them"
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