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Other Personnel In Incident: Everett A. McPherson
Source: Compiled by THE P.O.W. NETWORK 02 February 93 from the
following published sources - POW/MIA's -- Report of the Select
Committee
on POW/MIA Affairs United States Senate -- January 13, 1993. "The Senate
Select Committee staff has prepared case summaries for the priority
cases
that the Administration is now investigating. These provide the facts
about
each case, describe the circumstances under which the individual was
lost,
and detail the information learned since the date of loss. Information
in
the case summaries is limited to information from casualty files, does
not
include any judgments by Committee staff, and attempts to relate
essential
facts. The Committee acknowledges that POW/MIAs' primary next-of- kin
know
their family members' cases in more comprehensive detail than summarized
here and recognizes the limitations that the report format imposes on
these
summaries."
Remains Returned
On March 18, 1966, First Lieutenants McPherson and Davis were the crew on board an EF-10B, one in a flight of two aircraft on an electronic counter-measures mission in support of an air strike approximately 10 miles west of Thanh Hoa City, Thanh Hoa Province. Their flight received 85mm anti-aircraft fire during the mission. There was an explosion in their aircraft while at an altitude of 26,000 feet and over neighboring Nghe An Province. They were believed to have been hit and downed by enemy surface to air missile. A SAR mission over the area produced negative results.
Both airmen were initially declared missing in action. Returning U.S. POWs had no information on their fate. Both airmen were initially declared dead/body not recovered, based on a presumptive finding of death.
In December 1988, Vietnamese officials acknowledge having knowledge of their loss incident.
Update 1/28/98: In 1993, a joint U.S.-Vietnamese team traveled to Nghe An Province and interviewed local villagers who provided information on this incident. They reported that one American had ejected from the burning aircraft but his chute failed to open. The other pilot was found dead at the crash site. A villager turned over to U.S. authorities remains he claimed to have recovered from the crash site.
In 1995 and 1997, U.S.-Vietnamese joint teams excavated the crash area and recovered suspected bone fragments and wreckage material. The suspected human remains are currently undergoing forensic analysis at the U.S. Army’s Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. Mitochondrial DNA testing performed on the bone fragment turned over in 1993 confirmed the identification as that of 1stLt. Davis. His crewmate is still unaccounted for.
With the identification of Davis, 2,099 Americans remain unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War.