| Date: 1 June 1965 |
| Aircraft type: RF-8A Crusader |
| Serial Number: 146852 |
| Military Unit: Detachment E, VFP-63 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Bon Homme Richard |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Cdr Frederick Peter Crosby (KIA) |
| The Bon Homme Richard arrived in the South China Sea on 12 May for its second tour of duty off Vietnam having spent nine months in 1964 with TF 77. The Bon Homme Richard’s first loss of its second tour was another RF-8A, the second that day. About six hours after Lt Fields’s incident, Lt Cdr Crosby was flying a BDA sortie over the Dong Phong Thuong Bridge about 10 miles north of Thanh Hoa. He approached the bridge at low level doing 550 knots but the aircraft (call sign Cork Tip) flew into a hail of fire and was hit in the wing. The aircraft slowly rolled inverted and dived into the groud. Lt Cdr Crosby may have been hit as he made no apparent attempt to eject. After lengthy research a joint US/Vietnamese team excavated a crash site in late 2015 and recovered aircraft wreckage and bone fragments. The remains were matched to Lt Cdr Crosby’s sister by mitochondrial DNA testing proving identification. |
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