Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project (919/527-8079) 01 April 1991 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

Copyright 1991 Homecoming II Project.
 
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  SYNOPSIS: Captain Benjamin F. Danielson was the pilot the number two air craft in a flight of two F4Cs on an operational mission over Laos. Captain Danielson and his navigator departed Cam Ranh Bay Air Base, South Vietnam at 10:00 a.m. on December 5, 1969. At about 11:30 a.m., while pulling up from a dive, the aircraft was hit by hostile ground fire. 

Two ejection seats and two parachutes were observed leaving the plane,and two emergency radio beeper signals were received. The two landed 100 feet apart on each side of a river. Voice contact was established with both men on the ground, who reported that they were in good shape. Six separate rescue attempts were made on that day, but each was aborted when it came under heavy groundfire.

Search and rescue attempts continued for 12 hours. The navigator saw Danielson twice that day and talked with him on the radio all day and night. Danielson and the navigator had worked out a signal system that if one man beeped the other, it meant not to call on the radio because the enemy was close enough to hear radio chatter.

 Fourty-five minutes after first light on December 6, Danielson beeped the navigator once. It is believed that the enemy found Danielson's position at this time. There was no further beeper or radio contact from Ben for about an hour, then the beeper went off and stayed active until the batteries would have run down. Heavy ground fire prevented the navigator from being rescued until noon on December 7. Danielson, at that time, was not found. Danielson was last seen about 1 mile southwest of Ban Phanop, Laos.

 Like nearly 600 others lost in Laos, Danielson simply vanished without a trace. No agreement was reached regarding the prisoner held by the Lao. No prisoners were released by the Lao. Many of the thousands of reports of Americans alive in captivity today come from Laos. Perhaps one of those who remain is Danielson; that is uncertain. What is certain, however, is that someone knows the fate of Benjamin F. Danielson.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep pushing this issue inside the Beltway...The need to get specific answers is more important now than ever before. If still alive, some MIAs are now in their 70s...They don't have much time left. We have to demand the answers from the bureaucrats and keep standing on their necks (figuratively speaking) until they get the message that THEY work for US and that we are serious about getting these long overdue responses. Diplomatic considerations aside...

We can no longer allow questionable protocols established by pseudo-aristocratic armchair strategists, to determine or influence the fate of the men who were in the trenches while the diplomats were sharing sherry and canapes and talking about "Their Plans" for the future of SE Asia.

"OPERATION JUST CAUSE"

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A PURPLE HEART FOR

CAPTAIN BENJAMIN FRANKLIN DANIELSON

 

 

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MY AWARDS

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