| Date: 24 April 1966 |
| Aircraft type: F-105D Thunderchief |
| Serial Number: 61-0051 |
| Military Unit: 469 TFS, 388 TFW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Korat |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Col William Earl Cooper (KIA) |
| Aircraft type: F-105D Thunderchief |
| Serial Number: 62-4340 |
| Military Unit: 469 TFS, 388 TFW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Korat |
| Name(s): |
| 1Lt Jerry Donald Driscoll (POW) |
| Despite the loss of two aircraft on the 23rd the Phu Lang Thuong Bridge was attacked again on the 24th. This time it was the turn of the 469th TFS commanded by Lt Col William Cooper who led 13 F-105s on the raid. As the first flight of aircraft approached the bridge from the north at 6,000 feet, Lt Col Cooper’s Thunderchief (call sign Oak) was hit by an SA-2 missile. The aircraft broke in half and the forward section fell to earth in a flat spin. No ejection or parachute was seen.
Five minutes later, as another flight started their bombing run on the bridge, 1Lt Driscoll’s aircraft (call sign Pecan) was hit by large calibre AAA and caught fire. Trailing flames twice the length of his aircraft, 1Lt Driscoll ejected just as the Thud rolled inverted. The Phu Lang Thuong Bridge had now cost the USAF four aircraft and four pilots, only one of whom survived. Driscoll’s parachute had barely had time to open when he hit the ground and was immediately surrounded by about 20 North Vietnamese. Jerry Driscoll spent the next seven years in various POW camps. On 6 July 1966 he was forced to lead one of two groups of POWs as they were paraded through the streets of Hanoi where the prisoners suffered much physical abuse from the gathered mob. He had been on his 112th mission when he was shot down and was released on 12 February 1973. Jerry Driscoll resumed his Air Force career after his release but eventually retired with the rank of Colonel and went to fly for American Airlines. In 1989 the Vietnamese government repatriated a box of human remains that were claimed to be those of Col Cooper. Subsequent excavations recovered more human remains, wreckage and personal equipment but it was not until December 2014 that the remains could be positively identified as being those of William Cooper thanks to the development of nuclear DNA testing. The remains of the highly-decorated ‘Coop’ Cooper were buried in Arlington National Cemetery on 23 April 2015. He had enlisted in the Army in 1942 and then transferred to the Air Force to fly the B-24 Liberator in the China-Burma-India theatre during World War Two. |
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