Missing In Action
HUNTER, RUSSELL PALMER, JR.
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 31 April 1990
REMARKS: From one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.
SYNOPSIS: The B57 Canberra bomber was dispatched to Vietnam in response to the Ton kin Gulf incident in the summer of 1964. Although the upgrading of Vietnamese anti-aircraft and ground attacks made the B57 vulnerable after a time, it still proved valuable as a light bomber, and in interdiction missions over Laos. Capt. Russell P. Hunter Jr. was the pilot of a B57B Canberra sent on an night strike mission over Laos on February 10, 1966. His navigator/co-pilot was Capt. Ernest P. Kiefel Jr., an Air Force officer with 16 years service. The two men were assigned to the 13th Bombing Squadron based at Da Nang, South Vietnam.
(NOTE: Some records indicate that these two men were based in the Philippines. It is possible that they were on a short-duty tour from a unit in the Philippines and working with the 13th Bombing Squadron.) Hunter's aircraft was on its second pass over a target on the Ho Chi Minh Trail when Hunter reported he was having difficulty with the aircraft and the crew members were bailing out. Neither Hunter nor Kiefel were found after the aircraft went down. Their last known location was about 5 miles east of the city of Sepone in Savannakhet Province.
(NOTE: Air Force records state "the crew members were bailing out," which can be misinterpreted unless one understands that the Canberra was a two-man aircraft. The crew, in this case, consisted of Hunter and Kiefel only.)
What happened to Hunter and Kiefel is not known.
They are among nearly 600
Americans who disappeared in the "secret war" in Laos and never returned.
When 591 Americans were released from prisons in Vietnam in 1973 at the end
of the war, not one American held by the Lao was among them. No treaty or
agreement has been signed to secure their release since that day, although
the Lao stated publicly that they held prisoners and would release them only
from Laos.
There is ample reason to believe that the Vietnamese and/or the
Communist Lao know what happened to Hunter and Kiefel on December 29, 1967.
There have been nearly 10,000 reports given to the U.S. Government relating
to Americans prisoner, missing, or otherwise unaccounted for in Southeast
Asia. Many officials who have seen this largely classified information have
reluctantly concluded that hundreds of Americans are still alive in
captivity today. Whether Hunter and Kiefel might be among them is unknown.
What is certain, however, is that as long as even one man remains held
against his will in Indochina, we must do everything possible to bring him
home.
Both Hunter and Kiefel were promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
during the period they were maintained missing.
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| Marilyn's Site: | www.angelfire.com/oh/jmgrote/powmia.html |
| Jeff's POW/MIA page: | www.angelfire.com/oh/jmgrote/powmia.html |
| Gene's POW/MIA page: | home.earthlink.net/~agmilner/ |
| Lon's POW/MIA page: | members.home.net/lonthomas/index.html |
| Mike's POW/MIA page: | www.oocities.org/Pentagon/Quarters/5548/ |
"THANK YOU" TO ALL THE VETERANS!! Marilyn Grote - FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES
2,047 POW/MIA(s) are still missing from Vietnam. When the American citizens becomes so outraged that they start making demands on the Government officials and the candidates to return the POW/MIA -it will happen. When the POW/MIA becomes a poll question action will be taken. One more day of waiting is too long to wait for the POW.
