The F111 was first used in Southeast Asia in March 1968 during Operation Combat Lancer and flew nearly 3,000 missions during the war despite frequent periods of grounding. From 1968 to 1973, the F111 was grounded several months because of excess losses of aircraft. By 1969, there had been 15 F111’s downed by malfunction or enemy fire. The major malfunctions involved engine problems and problems with the terrain following radar
(TFR) which reads the terrain ahead and flies over any obstructions.
Eight of the F111’s downed during the war were flown by crews that were captured or declared missing. The first was one of two F111’s downed during Operation Combat Lancer, during which the F111 crews conducted night and all-weather attacks against targets in North Vietnam. On March 28, the F111A flown by Maj. Henry E. MacCann and Capt. Dennis L. Graham was downed near the airfield at Phu
Xa, about 5 miles northwest of the city of Dong Hoi in Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. Both MacCann and Graham were declared Missing in Action. Graham had been a graduate of Texas A & M in 1963. The crew of the second F111 downed during March 1968 was recovered.
On April 22, 1968 at about 7:30 p.m., Navy
LCdr. David L. Cooley and Air Force Lt. Col. Edwin D. Palmgren departed the 428th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Ubon Air Base, Thailand to fly an attack mission against the Mi Le Highway Ferry over Dai Giang along Route 101. They were to pass over very heavily defended areas of Laos at rather low altitude. Although searches continued for four days, no wreckage was ever found. The loss coordinates are located near Quang
Bien, in Laos, although the two men are listed as Missing in Action in North Vietnam.
As a result of the loss of the
Cooley/Palmgren F111A, the Air Force suspended use of the aircraft for a limited period to investigate the cause of the losses and make any necessary modifications. After the aircraft returned to the air, the crashes resumed. When the 15th F111 went down in late 1969 because of mechanical failure, all F111’s were grounded and the plane did not return to Vietnam service for several months.
In September 1972 F111A’s were returned to Southeast Asia. On September 29, 1972, the F111A flown by
Maj. William C. Coltman and commanded by 1Lt. Robert A. Brett, Jr. went down in North Vietnam on the Red River about 10 miles southwest of the city of Yen
Bai. Inexplicably, the National League of Families published a list in 1974 that indicated that Robert A. Brett had survived the downing of his aircraft, and that the loss location was in Laos, not North Vietnam. Both men remain Missing in Action.
On October 17, 1972, Capt. James A. Hockridge and 1Lt. Allen U. Graham were flying an F111A near the city of Cho Moi in Bac Thai Province, North Vietnam, when their aircraft went down. Both men were listed as Missing in Action, until their remains were returned September 30, 1977.
On November 7, 1972, Maj. Robert M. Brown and Maj. Robert D. Morrissey flew an F111A on a mission over North Vietnam. Morrissey, on his second tour of Vietnam, was a 20 year veteran of the Air Force. The aircraft was first reported lost over North Vietnam, but loss coordinates released later indicated that the aircraft was lost in Khammouane Province, Laos near the city of Ban
Phaphilang. Both Brown and Morrissey remain missing.
On November 21, 1972, the F111A flown by Capt. Ronald D. Stafford and Capt. Charles J. Caffarelli went down about halfway between Hue and Da Nang in South Vietnam. Both the pilot and backseater were thought to have died in the crash into the South China Sea, but no remains were ever found.
On December 18, 1972,
Lt. Col. Ronald J. Ward and Maj. James R. McElvain were flying an F111 on a combat mission over North Vietnam when their aircraft was forced to ditch in the Gulf of Tonkin near the coastline at Hoanh Dong. It was suspected that these two airmen may have ejected. They remain Missing in Action.
The last missing F111A team to be shot down was Capt. Robert D. Sponeyberger and 1Lt. William W. Wilson. Sponeyberger and Wilson were flying a typical F111 tactical mission when they were hit - flying at supersonic speed only a few hundred feet altitude. They were declared Missing in Action.
In 1973, however, Sponeyberger and Wilson were released by the North Vietnamese, who had held them prisoner since the day their aircraft was shot down. Their story revealed another possibility as to why so many F111’s had been lost.
Air Force officials had suspected mechanical problems, but really had no idea why the planes were lost because they fly singly and out of radio contact. Capt. Sponeyberger and 1Lt. Wilson had ruled out mechanical problems. "It seems logical that we were hit by small arms," Wilson said, "By what you would classify as a ‘Golden BB’ - just a lucky shot." Sponeyberger added that small arms at low level were the most feared weapons by F111 pilots. The SAM-25 used in North Vietnam was ineffective at the low altitudes flown by the F111, and anti-aircraft cannot sweep the sky fast enough to keep up with the aircraft.
That a 91,000 pound aircraft flying at supersonic speeds could be knocked out of the air by an ordinary bullet from a hand-held rifle or machine gun is a David and Goliath-type story the Vietnamese must love to tell and retell.
As reports continue to be received by the U.S.
Government build a strong case for belief that hundreds of these missing Americans are still alive and in captivity, one must wonder if their retention provides yet another David and Goliath story for Vietnamese propaganda. The F111 missions were hazardous and the pilots who flew them brave and skilled. Fourteen Americans remain missing from F111 aircrafts downed in Southeast Asia. If any of them are among those said to be still missing, what must they be thinking of us?
Robert Mack Brown was appointed to the United States Air Force Academy in 1963.
Incidental Information
