Rank/Branch: USAF, 03

Unit:

Date of Birth: 24 July 28

Home City of Record: Marshall, TX

Date of Loss: 07 April 65

Country of Loss: Laos

Loss Coordinates: 193500N 1034700E

Status (in 1973): Missing in Action

Category: 3

Acft/Vehicle/Ground: B-57B

Remarks: Last seen on dive thru thin clouds

Other Personnel In Incident: Arthur D. Baker

Source: Compiled by THE P.O.W. NETWORK 02 February 93 from the following

published sources - POW/MIA's -- Report of the Select Committee on POW/MIA

Affairs United States Senate -- January 13, 1993. "The Senate Select

Committee staff has prepared case summaries for the priority cases that the

Administration is now investigating. These provide the facts about each

case, describe the circumstances under which the individual was lost, and

detail the information learned since the date of loss. Information in the

case summaries is limited to information from casualty files, does not

include any judgments by Committee staff, and attempts to relate essential

facts. The Committee acknowledges that POW/MIAs' primary next-of- kin know

their family members' cases in more comprehensive detail than summarized

here and recognizes the limitations that the report format imposes on these summeries.

On April 7, 1965, Baker and James were crewmen on a B-57B, one in a flight

of four aircraft on an interdiction mission launched from Bien Hoa Air Base,

South Vietnam and with its target in Xieng Khouang Province, Laos. The crew

was last seen descending through thin overcast toward the target area and it

never reappeared. Extensive search and rescue efforts through April 12th

failed to locate either the aircraft or its crew.

On April 14, 1965, the New China News Agency reported the shoot down of a

B-57 approximately three miles north-northeast of the town of Khang Khay.

This was described as the first B-57 shoot down of an aircraft launched from South Vietnam.

Both crewmen were initially reported missing in action in South Vietnam

while on a classified mission. Their loss location was later changed to

Laos. There was limited wartime reporting about U.S. aircraft losses in the

general area the crewmen were last reported but they could not be correlated

to this specific incident. U.S. intelligence continues to receive

information which may correlate to this shoot down but provides no positive

information on the fate of the crewmen.

In January 1974 Major Baker's next-of-kin requested his case review go

forward and he was declared killed in action, body not recovered, in January

1974. Lewis was declared dead/body not recovered, in April 1982. Returning

POWs were unable to provide any information on the fate of these two servicemen.

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.

If you'd like to see what some others are doing in addition to writing

their congressmen, senators and the Whitehouse, check out some of these sites: