| Date: 13 August 1972 |
| Aircraft type: RF-4C Phantom |
| Serial Number: 68-0604 |
| Military Unit: 14 TRS, 432 TRW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Udorn |
| Name(s): |
| Capt William Aaron Gauntt (POW) |
| 1Lt Francis Wayne Townsend (KIA) |
| An RF-4C (call sign Atlanta 10) took off from Udorn on a daylight reconnaissance flight over Quang Tri, the southernmost province of North Vietnam. The aircraft was shot down by 57mm AAA near Kinh Mon within the DMZ buffer zone. Capt Gauntt survived and was captured but 1Lt Townsend’s fate is unknown although it was thought that he had ejected from the aircraft. Capt Gauntt had flown 130 missions, including 57 over the North, before being shot down and was almost at the end of his tour of duty at Udorn. He was repatriated on 27 March 1973 and resumed flying the RF-4C. Investigations and excavations of a crash site by joint US/Vietnamese teams in 1998 and 1999 recovered human remains that were identified in 2002 as being those of 1Lt Townsend. |
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