| Date: 30 April 1968 |
| Aircraft type: A-26A Invader |
| Serial Number: 67-17648 |
| Military Unit: 609 ACS, 56 ACW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Nakhon Phanom |
| Name(s): |
| Capt Robert Edward Pietsch (KIA) |
| Capt Louis Fulda Guillermin (KIA) |
| An A-26 Invader (call sign Nimrod 3) was lost during a night interdiction mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in southern Laos. Capt Pietsch was making his second pass to drop napalm on two trucks he had found near Ban Boung, 35 miles west of the DMZ. The aircraft was hit by 37mm AAA and crashed immediately. It was presumed that the crew did not have a chance to escape. The crash site was investigated by a joint US/Laotian team in 1994 and human remains were recovered but the investigation had to be abandoned prematurely due to dangerous unexploded ordnance on the site. It was not until 2006 that another team, assisted by explosive ordnance disposal personnel, cleared the site and found more remains as well as personal effects. Although only the remains of Capt Guillermin could be individually confirmed by mitochondrial DNA analysis, the remains were deemed to represent both members of the crew. Capt Guillermin’s remains were buried in Broomall, Pennsylvania, and a group burial of comingled remains was made in Arlington National Cemetery in October 2013. |
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