| Date: 22 April 1968 |
| Aircraft type: F-111A Aardvark |
| Serial Number: 66-0024 |
| Military Unit: Detachment 1, 428 TFS, 474 TFW attached to 355 TFW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Takhli |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Col Edwin David Palmgren (KIA) |
| Lt Cdr David Leo Cooley (US Navy) (KIA) |
| The third aircraft to be lost from the Combat Lancer detachment disappeared during a night low-level strike on a ferry at Phoung Chay in southern Laos, 30 miles west of the A Shau Valley. The ferry was an important crossing point over the Xé Lanong River for traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and was well defended. When the aircraft, using the call sign Tailbone 7, failed to return a search was commenced but after four days it was called off as no wreckage had been spotted and there was no evidence that the crew were still alive. Although the North Vietnamese claimed to have shot the aircraft down, it was thought more likely that the aircraft had flown into the ground near the target during the low-level approach. This incident resulted in the suspension of combat operations for the F-111 detachment although the crews continued to fly local training flights until 22 November when the Combat Lancer detachment returned to the USA having flown a total of just 55 combat sorties. It would be another four years before the F-111 returned to Southeast Asia to finally prove itself in combat. Four of the returning Combat Lancer aircraft were later converted to EF-111A Raven status and two of them saw action over Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. 66-0024 was one of two replacement aircraft that arrived at Takhli on 1 April following the loss of the first two aircraft.
Much earlier in his career Lt Col Palmgren had been a member of the Thunderbirds aerobatic team and had survived a dead stick landing in an F-84F near Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Lt Cdr Cooley was a US Navy officer on exchange duties with the USAF. The Navy had ordered the F-111B carrier-based variant of the F-111 and had a number of air and ground crew attached to the USAF to gain experience before their own aircraft were delivered. In the event the Navy cancelled the F-111B and relied on updated versions of the Intruder for its low-level strike capability. |
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