| Date: 17 June 1966 |
| Aircraft type: C-130E Hercules |
| Serial Number: 63-7785 |
| Military Unit: VR-7 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: Moffett Field |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Cdr Ralph Burton Cobbs (KIA) |
| Lt(jg) Donald Edwin Siegwarth (KIA) |
| Lt(jg) Clement Olin Stevenson (KIA) |
| Lt(jg) Edward Leon Romig (KIA) |
| AN Melvin Joseph Savoy (KIA) |
| YN2 Jack Ishum Dempsey (KIA) |
| ADJ2 Curtis David Collette (KIA) |
| ADR2 Stanley Jon Freng (KIA) |
| VR-7 was one of four C-130 squadrons formed in 1963 under Navy ownership as part of the joint Air Force-Navy MATS. Thirty minutes after taking off from Cam Ranh Bay on a routine transport flight to Kadena AB on the island of Okinawa, a Hercules from VR-7 exploded and crashed into the South China Sea killing all on board. The aircraft came down about 45 miles northeast of Nha Trang and about five miles off a small spit of land south of Phu Hiep. Although very little of the aircraft was ever found it was strongly suspected that the aircraft had been a victim of sabotage by Vietnamese communist sympathisers who worked at the base. The body of Lt Stevenson was recovered from the sea soon after the crash and was later buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Six USAF airmen killed on board the aircraft were Capt Connie Mack Gravitte, 1Lt Claiborne Parks McCall (body recovered), SSgt Oley Neal Adams, SSgt Robert Alexander Cairns, SSgt Gene Karl Hess and A2C Larry Eugene Washburn. All the Navy MATS squadrons were inactivated in 1967 and the aircraft handed over to the USAF. The serial number usually quoted for this aircraft was also carried by an MC-130E which served with the 711th SOS. |
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