| Date: 21 December 1972 |
| Aircraft type: B-52G Stratofortress |
| Serial Number: 58-0198 |
| Military Unit: 92 BW attached to 72 SW(P) |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Andersen AFB, Guam |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Col James Yoshikazu Nagahiro (POW) |
| Capt Donovan Keith Walters (KIA) |
| Maj Edward Harvey Johnson (KIA) |
| Capt Lynn Richard Beens (POW) |
| Capt Robert Ray Lynn (KIA) |
| A1C Charles James Bebus (KIA) |
| Lt Col Keith Russell Heggen (POW (died)) |
| Aircraft type: B-52G Stratofortress |
| Serial Number: 58-0169 |
| Military Unit: 97 BW attached to 72 SW(P) |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Andersen AFB, Guam |
| Name(s): |
| Capt Randall James Craddock (KIA) |
| Capt George Barry Lockhart (KIA) |
| Maj Bobby Alexander Kirby (KIA) |
| Capt Ronald Dwight Perry (KIA) |
| 2Lt Charles Edward Darr (KIA) |
| SSgt James Leon Lollar (POW) |
| A few minutes behind the raid on Gia Lam, Olive 1 led a raid on Kinh No by four cells of aircraft from Guam just as dawn was beginning to break. Olive 1, another of the unmodified B-52Gs, was flown by Lt Col Nagahiro and also carried Lt Col Heggen, the deputy airborne mission commander, in addition to the normal crew. Olive 1 was hit by a SAM in the tail section at 35,000 feet two miles west of Hanoi moments after it had dropped its bombs and was turning on its course for the return flight. The aircraft crashed in flames and although all the crew are thought to have ejected only three of them successfully escaped from the bomber. Lt Col Nagahiro and Capt Beens were repatriated on 29 March 1973 but Lt Col Heggens died of his injuries soon after being captured. The remains of Lt Col Heggen were returned on 13 March 1974 but it was not until October 1988 that the remains of the other four missing crewmen were returned. Hawaiian-born James Nagahiro had started his flying career as a navigator in C-124 transports before pilot training and conversion to the B-47 and B-52. The crew were on deployment from the 92nd BW’s base at Fairchild AFB in Washington.
Two cells behind Olive cell and also headed for Kinh No was Tan cell. Capt Craddock’s Tan 3 was an unmodified B-52G that had lost its bombing and navigation radar and so had to rely on radar directions from the cell leader. By the time the cell reached the target Tan 3 was lagging well behind the other two aircraft and it was hit by two SAMs about eight miles northwest of Hanoi. Only the tail gunner, SSgt Lollar, ejected before the aircraft exploded and he was captured and was released on 29 March 1973. SSgt Lollar had previously served on ground tours in Southeast Asia with B-57 and AC-47 units before training as a tail gunner on the B-52. The crew was from the 97th BW based at Blytheville AFB, Arkansas. The remains of Capt Perry were returned by the Vietnamese on 21 December 1975, three years to the day of his death, but it was not until 15 December 1988 that remains subsequently identified as belonging to the four remaining men missing from Tan 3 were returned. Four unmodified B-52Gs and two B-52Ds had been lost on a single night with another B-52D (Brick 2) damaged and forced to make an emergency landing at U-Tapao. Five of the aircraft lost had been hit after bomb release during the post-target turn when the ECM was less effective and the crew unable to look for SAMs on one side of the aircraft. After this costly night the unmodified B-52Gs were not sent on raids over Hanoi again. |
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