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My
adopted Louisiana MIA's
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Maj.
Frank Alton Armstrong III
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|
"Dutch"
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A man
that flew higher than the stars
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.
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Rank/Branch:
O4/US Air Force
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Unit: 1st
Air Commando Squadron
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Date of
Birth: 07 March 1930
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Home City
of Record: Shreveport LA
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Date of
Loss: 06 October 1967
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Country
of Loss: Laos
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Loss
Coordinates: 143757N 1072758E
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Status
(in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
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.Category:
2
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.Acft/Vehicle/Ground:
A1E
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.Other
Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
|
| . |
| Source:Compiled
by
Homecoming II Project 15 March |
| 1991 from one
or more of the following: raw data from U.S. |
| Government
agency sources, correspondence with |
| POW/MIA
families, published sources,
interviews......... |
| Copyright 1991
Homecoming II Project. |
| . |
|
REMARKS:
|
| . |
| SYNOPSIS:The Douglas A1 Skyraider ("Spad") is
a highly |
| maneuverable,propeller
driven aircraft designed as a |
| multipurpose
attack bomber or utility aircraft. The E
model |
| generally
carried two crewmen. The A1 was first used
by |
| the Air Force
in its Tactical Air Command to equip the first |
| Air Commando
Group engaged in counterinsurgency |
| operations in
South Vietnam, and later used in a |
| variety of
roles, ranging from multi-seat electronic |
| intelligence
gathering to Navy antisubmarine warfare and |
| rescue
missions. The venerable fighter aircraft was
retired |
| in the spring
of 1968 and had flown in more than twenty |
| model
variations, probably more than any other U.S. |
| combat
aircraft. |
| . |
| Maj. Frank A.
Armstrong III was the pilot of an A1E |
| which was on an
ordnance delivery mission on October 6, |
| 1967.
Armstrong's was the lead aircraft in a flight of
two |
| A1Es from the
1st Air Commando Squadron based at |
| Pleiku, South
Vietnam. |
| . |
| Armstrong's
aircraft was struck by hostile ground fire as |
| the flight was
in Attopeu Province, Laos, near the tri-border |
| area of Laos,
Cambodia and Vietnam. According to other |
| flight members,
Maj. Armstrong did not have time to |
| parachute out
of the aircraft as it crashed to the ground |
| in an inverted
position. |
| . |
| Frank A.
Armstrong is listed among the missing because |
| his remains
were never found to send home to the country |
| he
served. He died a tragically ironic death in
the midst |
| of war.
But, for his family, the case seems clear that he |
| died on that
day. The fact that they have no body to
bury |
| with honor is
not of great significance. |
| . |
| For others who
are missing, however, the evidence leads |
| not to death,
but to survival. Since the war ended,
over |
| 10,000 reports
received relating to Americans still |
| unaccounted for
in Indochina have convinced experts that |
| hundreds of men
are still alive, waiting for their country to |
| rescue
them. The notion that Americans are dying
without |
| hope in the
hands of a long-ago enemy belies the idea that |
| we left Vietnam
with honor. It also signals that tens of |
| thousands of
lost lives were a frivolous waste of our |
| best men. |
| . |
