DOWNING OF AIRCRAFT AND CAPTURE OF A CREWMAN IN THANH HOA PROVINCE, NORT H VIET

Created: 8/16/1972

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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of the swept-back wings. The second aircraftstraight and level at an approximate altitudeover one thousand meters and trailing theby about five hundred meters, uddy fieldpproximately"" hundred meters southeasthouse. The sir- .- .

craft did not explode on impact, but appeared to fall ' :

he burning plane was descending. * aw m

.man parachuting froa an altitude ol^app'rpximatcly four hundred fifty meters, about two hurdred fifty-meters_

the burning eircraft.'. The"parachute, 'aide',

nating red and white colors' extending from the center toB outer edge in wedge-shaped patterns, landed. fieldpproximately five hundred metersouthwest of I ouse.

3. The plana which appeared to havercro"ft and began to flyircular'patternarea. ,five minutes later, snotherflying in the orbital Theto encircle the area for approximately one hour departed. About thirty minutes later two jet-

propelled planes'resched the area end flew an orbital about'three ki lometera "In" cJrcumFerence atof approximately one thousand meters. - .

" jpntinuej to encircle..the area for about two hours and

.fKcn departed,

i,. Accordingember of the Ha TrungForcelater the same day,

when he firs* saw the crewmen on the ground, hedisengaged himself from his parachute and had not

visibly signaled the aircraft overhead. When the crewmana farmer running along the nearby levee toward nia,

the crewman,istance of approximately one hundred ifty meters, drew, his pistol and fired one. shot in tbe farmer's direction. He did not hit the -armor. When the

*farmer'heard the shot he turned and ran to his bouse.

"Continuing, Xuong said that another SDF member,to conceal his presence, cautiously approached the

crewman. That SDF member heard the crewman spMking but nothe "SDF" man suddenly "stood up, arge stickhreatening manner, and tolcTthe ;

pilot in English, "Gun The crewman raised

hands. (Field Comment: Source said that according to

crewman had discarded his

fifteen civilian Inhabitants of HyHamlet and an unknown number of SDF personnel ofand Nga 5on Districts had gathered In the area by

the time the crewman was captured. Assumingthe sltuation^the Nge Son SDF took the.rings*s.tol, and .parachute.then bound theelbows-behind his 'with

the crewman, under guard, passed tof approximately fifteen meters, .

that heale Causaslan,5 totall, and weighed about eeventy-flvebuild was muscular, and his hair, lightbrown

receding hairline. He was clean shavei> andhe criwirsn wore an olive green undershirt and red,Mit^rtrM,.

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loosely fitting shorts, tha lags of which extended to . The ci as wearing hla sippered boots which he had been allowed to retain. Tha boots ware black leather (as distinguished from the tropical-type, loathar-eanvae boots) and extended to midcalf. Aa *. ast observed tha cremaan, his anas were bound, but he was walking freely , .

between two Pga Son SDF personnel southwestwardly la the

direction ofSon District, While In "_ ight, the crewman did not resist hla captor*.

7. The fallen aircraft was guarded by SDFwarned the haalet Inhabitants to stay away fro* itthe planes which had circled overhead the day thefallen night return and shoot st them. Two days was allowed to approach the plans whilewere digging out the wreckage. One badly bent wingof the nose were the only large pieces of the plena _tintact. (Field Comment: Thea "described ' say have been pert, of the fuselage.) escribed dentical insignia* on them. inthe wing and about fcO en. on thes follows:was circular and consisted of three outer rings withstar in the center. Red stripes appeared outsideinsignl* ana-extended outward ho riaon telly on The outer ring was red,m. incenter ring was dark green, about 2cm. wide; thewas white,m. wide. The center star was five-ana beruly touched the inner white ring. Eachthe star had been divided vertically from the outerthe Middle of the star with alternating strips of red The background between the star and tbe Innercircle was the same color as the body of the plane,not shiny. n black letters appearedthe outer ring of thesaw other red

and black numbera and letters, but could not remembersaw ammunition which the SDF personnel

told himm. andm. The tall section ofwas charred, and ould not make out theno bombs or

6. In eceived aircraft-recognition training *il* serving in the Haa Rong area, Thanh Roe Proiinee Antiaircraftubordinate toth Regiment. Based on this training, j hought that the aircraft he had observed6 were either>'5. 1 as unable to identify the crewman from among the JPRC photographs of missing and captured personnel.)

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9. (Field Comment: This report was submitted to the Joint Personnel Reeovery Center which providedlowing -comments: "Records maintained at this office show that there are two individuala who correlate very closely to the area/ time frame of this report. They ere Lieutenant William D.S.N, and Lieutenantillie* H. Chrlstenaen. According to this report, only one man parachuted to safety. Without further information or specifics, no positive identification la possible.^

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Original document.

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