This is a picture of the F-8 Crusader. This plane is what Thomas Edward Brown flew.
Name: Thomas Edward Brown
Rank/Branch: O2/US Navy
Unit: Fighter Squadron 211, USS HANCOCK (CVA-19)
Date of Birth: 21 September 1941
Home City of Record:Danville, IL
Date of Loss: 29 April 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 204458N 1070757E (YH220957)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F8E
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
REMARKS: VF-211 is the sister squadron of my old squadron VF-24, and flew the Vought F-8 Crusader in the Vietnam war. Fighter Squadron 24 "The Fighting Renegades", was originally commisioned Fighter Squadron 211 in June 1955 at NAS Moffet Field.
SYNOPSIS: The Vought F-8 "Crusader" represented half or more of the carrier fighters in the Tonkin Gulf in the first four years of the Vietnam war.
The Crusader sometimes played the role of decoy in battles against SAMs (surface to air missiles), tricking the radar controlled SAM battery to follow
the F8 and allow following fighter/bombers to reach their targets.
On these type missions the F8 carried no external armament, to attain better maneuverability and airspeed.
The F8 also did much work in Vietnam in the ground attack role, and were used in the myriad attacks against strategic targets in North Vietnam (Rolling Thunder).
The Crusader was also a MiG fighter, either escorting strike and
reconnaissance aircraft or patrolling sectors in hope of engaging MiGs enroute to intercepting U.S. formations.
The Crusader was credited with nearly 53% of all MiG kills during the war.
From 1964 to 1973, 83 Crusaders were either lost or destroyed by enemy fire. Another 109 aircraft needed major rebuilding.
On April 29, 1966 LTJG Thomas E. Brown launched from the aircraft
carrier USS Hancock in his F8E Crusader fighter aircraft with others from his squadron on a strike mission against targets in North Vietnam. Lt. Brown's aircraft was engaged in a strafing run on a surface vessel when his aircraft was seen to collide with a karst rocket jutting out of the water 300 yards past the target.
No ejection was seen by the wingman. Brown and the rest of the flight package were striking in the vicinity of Haiphong Harbor, near the coastal city of Pho Cat Ba in North Vietnam.
LTJG Brown was classified Killed/Body Not Recovered. The Defense
Intelligence Agency further expanded the KIA/BNR classification to include an enemy knowledge ranking of 3.
Category 3 indicates "doubtful knowledge" and includes personnel whose loss incident is such that it is doubtful that the enemy wound have knowledge of the specific individuals (e.g. aircrews lost over
water or remote areas).
Brown's name is carried on the rolls of the missing because his body was not found to be returned home.
His family can be as certain as it is possible to be that he died a swift death on April 29, 1966.
Other families of the missing, however cannot be so consoled. They are taunted by nearly 10,000 reports received which have convinced many authorities that hundreds of
Americans remain alive in enemy hands in Southeast Asia.
Brown may not be among those said to be alive, but what would he think of our efforts to bring these American fighting men, or himself home to the country in which he so proudly served?
Prepared by Homecoming II Project 01 December 1989
If he is one of the hundreds of Americans experts now believe are still deceased in captivity in Southeast Asia, what are we doing to bring his remains home? What did he think of us, and why did the American government leave him to die in captivity?? Is it because of greed, or maybe the "river of denial" ran like a stream, and covered over the truth as to his release from his hell on earth.
Click here for the PMSEA (Personnel Missing Southeast Asia) for a detailed report on those accounted for, still missing, and unaccounted for from Illinois.
If you would like to write to families of these missing servicemen, the only way I know is to go to this website, and follow the directions on the website.
When you write the letters to the families, please make sure that you address it in reference to the missing serviceperson's family.
This is how I got in touch with Mrs. Lucy Sennett.
She is the wife of one of my missing servicemen Robert R. Sennett.
I can only imagine what these families like Mrs. Lucy Sennett have been through of not knowing.
This must be hell on earth for them.
Please, let's make their lives easier by taking the torch for them and finding out what happened to their family member, and not accepting anything but the truth, and not subjecting ourselves to the "Presumptive Finding of Death" finding.
As a person of this cause, I can honestly say, that those families expect nothing less. Let's NOT ACCEPT anything less.
This RingSurf Operation Black Flag Net Ring
owned by Mike Matteri.
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