| Date: 18 April 1967 |
| Aircraft type: F-4B Phantom |
| Serial Number: 151486 |
| Military Unit: VMFA-323, MAG-13 |
| Service: USMC |
| Home Base: Chu Lai |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Col Gordon H Keller (Survived) |
| Capt Hugh L Julian (Survived) |
| As a pair of Marine Corps F-4s climbed away from Chu Lai on a strike mission one of the aircraft suffered a complete electrical failure at 28,000 feet in heavy rain and clouds. The pilot could only communicate with his backseater by the use of hand signals. Lt Col Keller signaled to Capt Julian to eject but it took Keller three attempts to get his own ejection seat to fire. They both landed in the sea where Keller was soon located and picked up but Capt Julian was not found for nine hours. He had broken his arm, lost his life raft, survival radio and emergency light, but luckily he was rescued by a passing shrimp boat. Equally lucky was the fact that the boat was crewed by South Vietnamese who were not sympathetic to the Viet Cong. Lt Col Keller was the squadron commander of VMFA-323 and this was the last aircraft lost by the Squadron before it rotated back to MCAS Iwakuni in Japan on 16 May. |
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