| Date: 11 February 1970 |
| Aircraft type: A-1E Skyraider |
| Serial Number: 52-135195 |
| Military Unit: 22 SOS, 56 SOW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Nakhon Phanom |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Col William Lewis Kieffer (KIA) |
| A Skyraider was lost along with its pilot during a Barrel Roll mission on the 11th. Lt Col Kieffer was bombing Pathet Lao troop positions near Ban Len in the Plain of Jars when his aircraft (call sign Hobo 6) was shot down by small arms fire while in a 40-degree dive. The pilot may have been wounded by ground fire as he was not observed to eject from the aircraft before it hit the ground. William Kieffer had flown the B-24 Liberator in the Pacific theatre during the last year of World War Two. A joint US/Laotian team found bone fragments in 2007 which were identified by DNA analysis as being those of Lt Col Kieffer and buried in Arlington National Cemetery in 2011. |
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