Air Crews Shot Down During My Tour
These aircrews were shot down during my tour of duty at Ubon.
In July 1965, the 47th deployed to Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, and compiled 1,743 combat missions over Southeast Asia. The squadron returned to MacDill on 27 November 1965, and converted from a training mission to a combat training mission before being inactivated on 2 July 1971.
On July 24, 1965, two decorated veteran U.S. Air Force pilots were shot down over North Vietnam by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). The weapons officer, Captain Roscoe H. Fobair, was killed. Roscoe’s pilot, Captain Richard P. Keirn, successfully ejected and survived. He spent nearly eight years as a prisoner of war. Fobair and Keirn’s F-4 Phantom II tactical fighter/bomber was destroyed that day by the first successful North Vietnamese SAM strike of the Vietnam War. Captain Fobair was listed as missing in action until 1973, and his remains were not recovered until 1998.
Fobair and Keirn belonged to the U.S. Air Force 47th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 15th Tactical Fighter Wing, 13th Air Force. Roscoe Fobair was born in September 1935 in Oxnard, California. At the time of his last mission, he was 29 years old. He and the pilot, Richard Keirn, who was just days away from his 41st birthday, were flying one of the most advanced fighter aircraft of its day. Keirn had served in the U.S. armed forces through multiple wars, even having spent time as a POW in World War II.
1
06/21/65
F-4C
64-0685
Cpt Briggs
Cpt. Paul Anthony Karilivepage.apple.com
Rescued
Acft hit by ground fire
2
09/04/65
F-4C
63-7700
MIA
MIA
15th TFW-Ubon: On September 4, 1965, Branch and Jewell comprised the crew of an F4C assigned a bombing mission over North Vietnam. The mission target was in Nghe An Province, near a railroad about halfway between the cities of Tho Trang and Phu Dien Chau. During a low-altitude strafing run, the aircraft was shot down, crashed and exploded. No parachutes were observed departing the crippled aircraft.
3
09/24/65F-4C
64-0700
ukn
Rescued
Acft hit by ground fire during bomb run. Ditched at sea.
4
09/30/65
F-4C
64-0680
fatal/fatal
Acft hit by ground fire during bomb run. Struck ground and exploded.
5
10/01/65
F-4C
63-7712
fatal/fatal
432nd TFS: Acft hit by ground fire during bomb run 75 miles NW of Hanoi.
6
10/05/65
F-4C
63-7563
Capt James Otis Hivner
1Lt Thomas Joseph Barrett
Both
POW-R
47 TFS/15 TFW deployed to Ubon: Acft hit by ground fire during bomb run. Crashed 5 miles from target. Both aircrew ejected successfully and were spotted on ground. Could not be rescued due to ground fire.
7
10/16/65
F-4C
64-0730
Cpt T.E. Collins
1Lt Edward A. Brudno
POW-R
POW-R
68th TFS: Hit on strike mission the PR-II
8
12/19/65
F-4C
63-7526
Cpt B. Kann
GIB ukn
Rescued
433rd TFS: Acft. hit by SAM, flew to Thailand were crew ejected and were picked up by helo.
9
12/20/65
F-4C
64-0678
Cpt Robert D. Jeffrey
POW-R
MIA-BNR
433rd TFS: Acft hit by heavy AAA during CAP mission, went straight into ground.
10
02/21/66
F-4C
64-0728
Cpt J.L. Moore, Jr.
1Lt M.J. Peters
Rescued
Rescued
497th TFSLost making a run over targets in Laos. Hit by uknown gunfire.
11
02/28/66
F-4C
64-0742
Cpt J.C. Kahl
1Lt G.H. Hall
Rescued
Rescued
433rd TFS:Acft hit by ground fire during bomb run. Crew flew within 10 miles of Ubon before ejecting.
12
03/15/66
F-4C
64-0732
KIA-BNR
KIA-BNR
497th TFS: During night strafing attack on trucks aircraft impacted ground.
13
03/28/66
F-4C
63-7681
Cpt D.J. Rokes
1Lt J.O. Ozbolt
Rescued
Rescued
433rd TFS: Acft hit by ground fire during bomb run. Crew ejected and were rescued.
14
04/16/66
F-4C
63-7677
Maj Samuel R. Johnson
Cpt Larry J. Chesley
POW-R
POW-R
433rd TFS: Acft hit by ground fire during bomb run. Crew ejected. See video of Cpt Larry J. Chesley's POW experience ***
15
05/15/66
F-4C
64-0760
Cpt. Donald L. King
1Lt. Frank. Ralston III
MIA
MIA
433rd TFS: Early on the morning of 14 May 1966 a section of F-4C Phantoms from the 433rd Tac Fighter Sqdn took off from Ubon RTAFB for an armed reconnaissance mission near Dong Hoi, just north of the Demilitarized Zone. The two aircraft hit the tanker and headed for their target area. Before actually locating or prosecuting any targets, the wing aircraft (F-4C 64-0760, flown by Capt D. L. King and 1stLt Frank D. Ralston) went down under rather mysterious circumstances. The flight leader saw a "streak of light", suggesting a surface-to-air missile, and heard a garbled call from his wingman - but nothing more. Search and rescue efforts failed to locate either aircraft or crew, and the two men were classed as missing in action.
13
05/17/66
F-4C
64-0717
ukn/ukn
none/none
433rd TFS: Acft. overran runway.
14
05/30/66
F-4C
64-7664
Col. Dayton W. Ragland
1Lt. N. R. Herrold
MIA
MIA
555th TFS: Acft hit by ground fire during pass on Thanh Hoa railway bridge. Aircraft ditched at sea.
15
06/01/66
F-4C
63-7571
Cpt Armand V. Meyers
1Lt. J. L. Borling
POW-R
POW-R
433rd TFS: Acft hit by ground fire during flare drop.
A POW's Survival Story
04/16/66
F-4C
63-7677
Maj Samuel R. Johnson
Cpt Larry J. Chesley
POW-R
POW-R
433rd TFS: Acft hit by ground fire during bomb run. Crew ejected.
Lt. Col. Larry James Chesley, U.S.A.F., P.O.W., Vietnam, 1966-1973