In
order to protect American
aircraft from increasingly
sophisticated enemy radar
controlled anti-aircraft
artillery (AAA) guns and
surface-to-air missile (SAM)
sites, the Air Force
deployed EB-66 aircraft to
Vietnam. The Douglas EB-66C,
Destroyer, was an unarmed,
twin-engine jet with a crew
of six: pilot, navigator,
and four electronic warfare
officers (EWOs). The EB-66C
was an electronic
intelligence (ELINT)
platform and the crew's
mission was to locate the
North Vietnamese
surface-to-air missile (SAM)
and antiaircraft artillery
(AAA) sites by monitoring
the electronic emissions of
the NVA's "Fan
Song" and "Fire
Can" radars. The EB-66E
was an electronic
countermeasures (ECM)
platform with a crew of
three (pilot, navigator and
electronic warfare officer),
whose mission was to jam the
NVA's radar emissions to
degrade the enemy
anti-aircraft capabilities
and help keep American air
losses low.
On 2
April 1972, Major Wayne
Bolte, pilot; Lt. Col. Iceal
Hambleton, navigator; and
electronic warfare officers
(EWOs) then Major Henry
Serex, Lt. Col. Charles
Levis, 1st Lt. Robin Gatwood,
and Lt. Col. Anthony
Giannangeli; comprised the
crew of an EB-66C aircraft
(serial #54-0466), call sign
"Bat 21." It
departed Korat Royal Thai
Airbase at 1337 hours as the
lead aircraft in a flight of
two supporting a flight of
three B-52s. The #2 aircraft
in the flight, call sign
"Bat 22," was an
EB-66E. The men aboard Bat
21 comprised no ordinary
crew. Five were field grade
officers, who had access to
sensitive information in
their previous assignments,
and four were highly trained
electronic warfare
specialists.
At
approximately 1700 hours,
the pilot of an F105
aircraft on a nearby arc
light support mission in the
same general area got a
missile indicator warning in
his cockpit. The aircraft
commander saw the missile's
contrail as it traveled
skyward, then he saw the SAM
explosion at about 26,000
feet. At the same time, he
saw an aircraft diving in
the vicinity of that
explosion and thought it had
evaded the SAM. The missile
launch was from 1645N
10641E.
The
F105 pilot saw flames
trailing from each wing of
the Destroyer before the
aircraft broke into two
major pieces and 2 smaller
pieces at approximately
18,000 feet. The F105 pilot
followed the burning
wreckage to the ground. None
of the other pilots and
aircrews observed any of the
Bat 21 crew eject the
crippled aircraft; however,
one member of the flight
reported hearing an
intermittent beeper on guard
channel.
The
location of loss was in a
populated and hotly
contested generally flat
jungle approximately 1 mile
north of Firebase
Vandergrift, 2 miles north
of Highway 9 and 5 miles
west of Highway 1 with
rugged mountains 4 miles to
the west and open fields 2
miles to the east. It also
placed the downed aircraft 6
miles northwest of Dong Ha,
12 miles south of the DMZ,
14 miles northwest of Quang
Tri City and 20 miles
northeast of Khe Sanh, Quang
Tri Province, South Vietnam.
Bat
22, the number two aircraft
in the flight, was in a SAM
breakmaneuver at the same
time and did not see the
missile strike Bat 21.
However, personnel aboard
Bat 22 also reported hearing
a short beeper and then
another pilot request the
downed crewman to "come
up on voice." Shortly
thereafter the crew of Bat
22 heard the pilot establish
voice contact with Lt. Col.
Hambleton. He reported he
was okay and in good
spirits.
Because
this was no ordinary flight
crew, and its members would
be prize catches for the
enemy because of the
military knowledge and
experience each possessed,
it became critical to the US
to locate and recover any
survivors before the
Vietnamese could. An
extensive search and rescue
(SAR) operation was
immediately initiated and
continued throughout the
night, but these efforts
were severely hampered by
heavy enemy ground fire and
poor weather conditions. At
the time of shootdown, there
were broken to overcast
clouds with tops at 8,000 to
10,000 feet. In was further
hampered by the massive
invasion force of NVA troops
and tanks pouring across the
DMZ in what later became
known as the communist's
"Easter
Offensive."
On
2,3,4 and 5 April, voice
contact with Lt. Col.
Hambleton continued while an
elaborate rescue plan was
devised and implemented.
This plan included Iceal
Hambleton walking from the
area he was hiding in to a
location where his rescue
could be accomplished. Voice
contact continued with him
throughout the SAR effort,
and he was successfully
rescued on 13 April 1972 - a
process that took 12 days to
accomplish with unparalleled
cooperation from all
branches of the service and
with rescue and support
personnel coming from many
different bases.
During
this time no voice contact
was established with any
other member of Bat 21. For
this reason, the US
intelligence personnel
believed that Iceal
Hambleton was probably the
sole survivor. At the time
formal SAR operations were
terminated, Wayne Bolte,
Henry Serex, Robin Gatwood,
Anthony Giannangeli and
Charles Levis were listed
Missing in Action.
In
the course of this rescue
mission, other aircraft were
lost. They were:
2
April: US Army UH1H rescue
helicopter was shot down
later that day with the door
gunner being wounded,
captured and released during
Operation Homecoming; and 3
crew members Missing in
Action. Their remains were
returned to US control in
1993 and identified in 1994.
3
April: US Air Force OV-10A
shot down with one man
rescued after 12 days of
escaping and evading
capture, and the other
captured and released during
Operation Homecoming.
6
April: US Air Force HH53C
helicopter badly hit by
ground fire, crashed and
burned with the loss of all
6 crewmen on board. Their
remains were recovered
during a joint crash site
excavation in 1992 and were
identified in 1997.
On
the same day of loss, and
shortly after the Destroyer
was shot down, US
intelligence personnel
intercepted a Vietnam
People's Army (NVA) unit
message in which it reported
"three missiles had
been fired and 'struck' a
target." It went on to
state that "orange
parachutes were
reported." That was
followed by a Vietnamese
radio broadcast that said
"the NVA had fired
missiles and hit a B-52 in
the Vinh Linh Special Zone
area and other aircraft had
fled." Another report
from Hanoi in English three
days later, on 5 April,
reported the aircraft had
burst into flames and
exploded.
In
July 1986, Henry Serex's
daughter discovered that one
week after all search and
rescue efforts ceased for
the rest of the Bat 21 crew,
another mission was mounted
to recover "another
downed crew member"
from that aircraft. She does
not know if they were going
after her father or someone
else, but based on that
additional rescue attempt,
there is no doubt that at
least one other man from the
Destroyer was alive on the
ground and fighting to
regain his freedom.
In
1992, a National Security
Agency (NSA) correlation
study of all communist radio
intercepts pertaining to
missing Americans, which was
presented to the Senate
Select Committee on POW/MIA
Affairs in a classified
format, was finally
declassified and made
public. According to this
document, 4 North Vietnamese
radio messages, including
those already cited, were
intercepted and correlated
to this incident. The NSA
synopsis states: "Note;
shot down by SAM's. The
EB-66 operating over
northern Quang Tri Province
was down….by SAMs. An
OV-10 operating….south of
the DMZ was shot down…the
2-man crew bailed out
successfully and radio
contact was established
immediately, however,
contact with the pilot was
subsequently lost.
….capture of one US pilot
that had been shot down
earlier." Since 1973 US
satellites photographed what
are believed by many,
including noted experts, to
be multiple names and
authenticator codes of
American Prisoners of War at
POW camps throughout Vietnam
and Laos. Of significant
importance, one of the
satellite photographs taken
in June 1992 is of the Dong
Mang prison camp located
near Haiphong, (North)
Vietnam where the initials
"S-E-R-E-X" were
etched into the dirt of a
field just outside the
prison. Just below those
initials can be seen
"72 TA 88". That
was the year Henry Serex was
downed, and T and A were
authenticator codes for that
year. Other authenticator
codes were photographed in
June 1992 at another POW
camp not far away from this
one. These codes also have
been confirmed to belong to
other POW/MIAs, but not
other crewmembers of Bat 21.
If Wayne Bolte, Henry Serex,
Robin Gatwood, Anthony
Giannangeli and Charles
Levis died in the loss of
their aircraft, each man has
a right to have his remains
returned to his family,
friends and country.
However, if they survived,
their fate, like that of
other Americans who remain
unaccounted for in Southeast
Asia, could be quite
different. In addition to
the state of the art US
satellite intelligence
photographs taken since the
end of the Vietnam War, well
over 21,000 reports of
American prisoners, missing
and otherwise unaccounted
for have been received by
our government. Many of
these reports document LIVE
American Prisoners of War
remaining captive throughout
Southeast Asia TODAY.
Military personnel in
Vietnam were called upon to
fly and fight in many
dangerous circumstances, and
they were prepared to be
wounded, killed or captured.
It probably never occurred
to them that they could be
abandoned by the country
they so proudly served.
Incidental Information
