| Date: 18 February 1967 |
| Aircraft type: F-105F Thunderchief |
| Serial Number: 63-8262 |
| Military Unit: 13 TFS, 388 TFW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Korat |
| Name(s): |
| Capt David Henry Duart (POW) |
| Capt Jay Robert Jensen (POW) |
| When the primary mission for the day was scrubbed due to bad weather near Hanoi, an Iron Hand flight was sent to the DMZ area to suppress SAM sites in support of a B-52 raid. As none of the SAM sites challenged the bombers near the DMZ, the Weasel flight headed north to Vinh in the hope that a SAM site would switch on its radar. Eventually a SAM battery launched a missile when the Weasels were poorly placed, flying just 2,000 feet above a 10,000 feet cloud base. An SA-2 hit Capt Duart’s aircraft (call sign Magnum) moments after he had launched a Shrike at the site. The explosion blew off one of the aircraft’s wings and both the crew ejected immediately. Both men were quickly captured to become POWs. The crew had been shot down on their 13th mission and were released in different batches during Operation Homecoming, Capt Jensen on 18 February and Capt Duart on 4 March 1973. In the following year Jay Jensen wrote a book titled Six Years in Hell which describes the horrors of his incarceration and the joys of his return. The F-105F 63-8262 was painted as ‘Giddy up go’ when it was lost. |
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