| Date: 29 January 1969 |
| Aircraft type: F-4D Phantom |
| Serial Number: 66-7474 |
| Military Unit: 497 TFS, 8 TFW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Ubon |
| Name(s): |
| Maj William Edward Campbell (KIA) |
| Capt Robert Edwin Holton (KIA) |
| At dusk on the 29th a flight of two Phantoms attacked a truck convoy near Ban Xam Tai, in almost exactly the same location where Capt Smith’s Phantom had been hit on the previous day. The defences were still very active and a 37mm AAA shell hit Maj Campbell’s aircraft (call sign Bennett) at 4,500 feet during its attack on the convoy. It is possible that the crew were incapacitated by the ground fire as neither was observed to eject from the aircraft before it crashed. In 1989 Capt Campbell’s gold finger ring was acquired from a Laotian villager. The ring was eventually given to Bill Campbell’s family in 1991. Apparently his Smith and Wesson service revolver is displayed in a museum in Hanoi. Between 1994 and 2011 several investigations and excavations were mounted by US/Vietnamese/Laotian teams without success but in 2014 villagers handed over human remains that had been found near Ban Phanop village. The remains were confirmed by DNA and dental evidence as being those of Maj Campbell and were buried in Arlington National Cemetery in May 2017. In January 2017 a joint US/Laotian team excavated the crash site near Ban Phanop village and recovered human remains which were identified by dental analysis as being those of Capt Holton. The remains were buried in Gregson, Montana, later in the year. |
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