| Date: 27 February 1968 |
| Aircraft type: RF-4C Phantom |
| Serial Number: 66-0431 |
| Military Unit: 14 TRS, 432 TRW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Udorn |
| Name(s): |
| Maj Gilbert Swain Palmer (KIA) |
| Capt Thomas Thawson Wright (KIA) |
| A Phantom failed to return to Udorn from a solo reconnaissance mission to the Quang Binh Province of North Vietnam. It was thought that the aircraft (call sign Sumo) had probably been shot down over southern Laos, not far from where the OP-2E came down. According to Veith in Code Name Bright Light at least one of the Phantom crew is thought to have survived long enough to use his survival radio and fire a flare at the request of the SAR force. However, due to delays in authorising the rescue mission and a problem with a rescue hoist, the crash site was not located at the time. An intelligence report suggested that a black USAF officer had been seen in a temporary POW camp in this area and this report was tentatively correlated to Capt Wright. In 1999 a joint US/Laotian team were shown a crash site near the border with Vietnam and wreckage was identified as being that of a RF-4C. Further visits to the crash site were mounted between 2001 and 2010 and human remains were recovered. The remains were later matched to Maj Palmer’s brother through DNA analysis. Gilbert Palmer’s remains were buried in Arlington National Cemetery on 1 November 2011. |
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