| Date: 24 September 1965 |
| Aircraft type: F-4C Phantom |
| Serial Number: 64-0700 |
| Military Unit: 47 TFS, 15 TFW on TDY |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Ubon |
| Name(s): |
| Capt Jack D Gravis (Survived) |
| 1Lt Wylie E Nolen (Survived) |
| Missions in the heavily defended region just north of the DMZ took a toll on US aircraft throughout the war. The North Vietnamese used the region as a staging area for men and supplies travelling down the Ho Chin Minh Trail or through the DMZ into the South. Capt Gravis’s Phantom (call sign Grizzly) was shot down by intense AAA while he was leading his flight in an attack on army barracks at the village of Vinh Linh near the coast, less than five miles north of the DMZ. Capt Gravis headed out towards the coast with both engines failing and the hydraulic system operating erratically. By the time it reached the sea the aircraft was a mass of flames and the hydraulics seized. The crew ejected about five miles off the coast and the three remaining F-4s from the flight set up an orbit over the downed crew along with a pair of A-1Es and a pair of Navy F-8s. A HU-16 Albatross, piloted by Maj D C Hollenfeld, landed to pick up the survivors amid heavy shelling from coastal artillery. |
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