| Date: 10 January 1973 |
| Aircraft type: A-6A Intruder |
| Serial Number: 155693 |
| Military Unit: VA-115 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Midway |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Michael Timothy McCormick (KIA) |
| Lt(jg) Robert Alan Clark (KIA) |
| Two Intruders were launched from the Midway on a low-level night strike on a SAM site 30 miles northwest of Vinh and close to the coast. The raid was being made in support of a B-52 strike near Vinh and the night was very dark with cloud cover at 1,500 feet. A barrage of missiles was fired at the raiders, including about a dozen at the B-52s and at least three at the Intruders. The low cloud made it difficult to spot the SAMs until they broke cloud and by then precious reaction time had been lost. After completing its mission, the other Intruder waited over the sea for Lt McCormick’s aircraft (call sign Arab 511) but it never appeared. The surviving Intruder retraced the planned flight path at 15,000 feet and made numerous radio calls but without response. A SAR mission was mounted but there was no sign of the aircraft or its crew. The aircraft was almost certainly shot down by a SAM and crashed west of Phu Dien Chau. In 1993 the Vietnamese government handed over human remains but it was not until 10 years later, in May 2003, that thanks to advances in forensic analysis the remains were identified as being those of the A-6 crew. |
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