At 1745 hours, Jensen radioed his position, and again at 2100 hours, Jensen radioed situation normal, with no position given, nor was the target area
specified. The aircraft's last location was over the Laotian panhandle about 15 miles due east of the city of Ban Muong Sen in Savannakhet Province.
When the aircraft failed to return to the base as scheduled, an aerial search was conducted during the daylight hours of May 16, with negative results. The aircraft was not found, and no evidence of the crew surfaced.
The crew of the AC47 is among nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos during the war with Vietnam. Although the numbers of men actually termed "prisoner of war" are quite low, this can be explained in understanding the blanket of security surrounding the "secret war" the U.S. waged in Laos. To protect the public
perception that we "were not in Laos", details of many loss incidents were "rearranged" to show a loss or casualty in South Vietnam. Only a handful of publicly exposed cases were ever acknowledged POW, even though scores of pilots and ground personnel were known to have been alive and well at last contact
(thus increasing the chance they were captured alive).
Shortly after takeoff from Da Nang, the aircraft was contacted by radio, and this was the last contact had with Capt. Henninger's aircraft. The area of loss is indicated as being about 10 miles from the border of Laos in Quang Nam Province. All crew members aboard were declared Missing in Action. There is no way to determine whether the enemy knows the fates of these men because the U.S. Air Force is unsure of its area of loss.
The Lao communist faction, the Pathet Lao, stated on several occasions that they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, but the Pathet Lao were not included in the Paris Peace agreements ending American involvement in the war. As a consequence, no American POWs held in Laos were negotiated for. Not one American held in Laos has ever been released. As thousands of reports continue to flow in regarding Americans still captive in Southeast Asia, the fates of the crew of the AC47 become more intriguing. It is entirely possible, with no
evidence to the contrary, that they survived to be captured. Whether they survived or not, they were abandoned to the enemy.
Prepared by Homecoming II Project 01 December 1989
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