| Date: 30 September 1968 |
| Aircraft type: A-6A Intruder |
| Serial Number: 154149 |
| Military Unit: VA-196 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Constellation |
| Name(s): |
| Lt(jg) Larry Jack Van Renselaar (KIA) |
| Lt Domenick Anthony Spinelli (KIA) |
| Three Intruders were dispatched from the Constellation on a night armed reconnaissance mission north of Vinh using their radar to look for road traffic along Route 1A, the main coastal road. When the aircraft were about 17 miles northwest of Vinh, a SAM warning was received and Lt Van Renselaar (call sign Milestone 404) subsequently reported two SAMs being launched in his direction. The other Intruder crews saw two explosions at about 5,000 feet followed about 20 seconds later by another explosion on the ground. An E-2 Hawkeye orbiting over the Gulf of Tonkin observed that the Intruder’s IFF disappeared from the radar screen at about the same time. Wreckage was sighted on the ground not far from the coast during a search the next day. It was presumed that a SAM had hit the Intruder or the aircraft may have crashed when trying to avoid a missile. The crew were believed to have been killed in the incident, however, information obtained by the crew’s families in the late 1980s suggested that the crew may have been captured. Any doubt as to Lt Van Renselaar’s fate was dispelled in 1989 when his remains were returned to the USA from Vietnam. In a cruel twist of fate, ‘Spike’ Spinelli’s wife Raye had lost her first husband during the Second World War when he was shot down over enemy territory. |
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