| Date: 27 June 1972 |
| Aircraft type: F-4E Phantom |
| Serial Number: 67-0243 |
| Military Unit: 308 TFS, 31 TFW attached to 432 TRW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Udorn |
| Name(s): |
| Capt John P Cerak (POW) |
| Capt David B Dingee (POW) |
| The 27th of June turned out to be a bad day for the USAF with the loss of five aircraft in combat, three of them to MiGs, the worst day in terms of air-to-air casualties of the entire war as no MiGs were shot down in return. The first loss of the day occurred during a raid on Bac Mai airfield. One of the CAP flights for the mission was orbiting about 40 miles to the west of Hanoi when they were received warning of a SAM launch. No SAMs were fired but the crews were distracted long enough for one of the aircraft (call sign Troy) to be hit by a missile from a MiG-21 forcing the crew to eject immediately. Both men were captured and spent the rest of the war in prison until released on 28 March 1973. This was a highly experienced crew having a combined total of nearly 600 combat missions under their belts. Capt Cerak had flown 254 missions when he was shot down. Capt Dingee had recently started on his second tour and had flown a total of 325 combat missions in Southeast Asia. He had been shot down with another pilot on the first day of June and had been rescued on that occasion. His son, Capt Steven Dingee, was credited with shooting down an Iraqi helicopter on 11 February 1991 while flying an F-15C during Operation Desert Storm. |
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