JESSE ANDREW PYLE

Birth 09NOV29 Rank SP5 Date of Death 07FEB65 P. of birth   Service Army Place S. Vietnam Town of Record Springfield Unit MACV SD 5891 Death Code Hostile, Died; Other Explosive Devices Ground Casualty Hometown   service # 56113060 Panel 01EAST - 86 Married Married MIA -   Medals Purple Heart   Tour Date   Comment   Cemetery

     ELVIS GORDON BARKER

Birth 18MAR39 Rank CPT Date of Death 01MAR65 P. of birth   Service Army Place S. Vietnam Town of Record Salem Unit   Death Code Non Hostile, Died Other; Accidental Self Destruction Ground Casualty Hometown   service # O96311 Panel 01EAST - 94 Married Married MIA -   Medals   Tour Date   Comment   Cemetery

     TYRRELL GORDON LOWRY

Birth 27FEB32 Rank CPT Date of Death 18JUN65 P. of birth   Service Air Force (Reserve) Place Off Shore Military Reg 1 Town of Record Portland Unit 441ST BOMB SQD, 3960TH SW, SAC Death Code Non Hostile, Died Missing; Air Loss, Crash - Sea Fixed Wing - Crew Hometown   service # 3026918 Panel 02EAST - 12 Married Married MIA - BNR Medals   Tour Date   Comment Oregon MIA Cemetery

B52S BOMB VIET CONG TROOP CONCENTRATION
27 Big Bombers Used in Attack on Red Jungle Guam-Based Planes Enter Combat For First Time; 2 Lost on Flight
Washington (AP)
    The United States used 27 B52 intercontinental bombers Thursday to rain high explosive bombs on a Communist concentration in South Viet Nam. It was the first time B52 has ever been used in combat.
    The Defense Department said the strike took place in full daylight, Friday, Saigon time. A spokesman said 30 planes began the raid but two collided in flight before reaching the target. Anther had a malfunction which kept it from dropping its bombs.
    It marked the first time the huge Strategic Air Command jets have been used in Viet Nam war, or anywhere in fighting.
    The fleet pounded a Viet Cong concentration located north of Ben Cat In Binh Duong province to break up an impending attack, the Pentagon said.
    The jets flew to South Viet Nam from Guam, where two squadrons have been based. There was no immediate word on whether the 27 string bombers returned safely.
    2 Planes Collide
    The Pentagon said a co-pilot of one of the tanker refueling planes reporting seeing the two B52's collide.
    One crewman was known to have been picked up from waters off Luzon in the Philippines by an amphibious plane, a spokesman said, and other survivors were sighted in the water.
    The spokesman said officials were not absolutely certain what happened to the second of the colliding B52s because the fleet was maintaining radio silence.
    Apparently the first craft was tracked down by radar.
    A B52 normally carries a crew of six.
    The Pentagon said the planes dropped 1,000-pound and 750 pound bombs on Viet Cong forces in a heavily forested area 28 miles north of Saigon.
    A U.S. spokesman in Saigon said the B52s, which bomb from a relatively high altitude and do not dive on their targets, were used because of their greater effectiveness rather than for lack of other planes.
    The spokesman said an uninhabited area of jungle was involved. He said the attack was in full daylight and that sophisticated electronic systems had assured pinpoint accuracy.
    First details of the B52 raid were announced in Washington. There was no immediate reaction from Peking or Hanoi, although Radio Peking called a decision to send 20,000 more U.S. troops to Viet Nam "a new step on the path of widening the war of aggression."
    The B52 raid began about daybreak and the thunder of heavy bombs were audible in Saigon. There were big flare drops and barrages of artillery in the in the vicinity of Saigon during the early morning hours.
    At Bien Hoa, the big air base 15 miles north of Saigon, intense activity also was going on apparently in connection with the B52 strike and with ground operations that were to follow.
    A spokesman said Vietnamese ground forces would be moving into the forested area soon.
partial news article ( Tacoma News Tribune, Tacoma WA, 18 Jun 1965, front page)

Oregon Flier on Lost B52
A Portland man has been reported missing following the heavy bomber strike in Viet Nam Thursday. He is Capt. Tyrrell G. Lowry, 33, son of Mr. and Mrs. H. Tyrrell Lowry, 16015 NE Stanton St. The parents received word from the Defense Department Friday morning that the Air Force officer, a navigator - radar operator, was aboard one of two Guam - based B 52 jet bombers which collided over the South China Sea near the Philippines. The planes were part of a force en route to a target, a Viet Cong installation 28 miles north of Saigon, in South Viet Nam. Capt. Lowry is a graduate of Washington High School and Oregon State University. His wife, Joanna (Ford), also an OSU graduate, resides in Rancho Cordorva CA, with their three daughters, ages 8, 5, and 3.
( Tacoma News Tribune, Tacoma WA, 20 Jun 1965, front page)

MIA information from pownetwork.org Capt. Tyreell G. Lowry (one of two Oregonian man involved) was a member of the crew of a Boeing B52 Stratofortress bomber that was involved in a mid-air crash with another B52 on 18 Jun 1965. Of the 12 men involved, 5 men successfully bailed out. More information available at Pownetwork.org

     HAROLD JAMES ROBERTS Jr

Birth 16JUL21 Rank MSGT Date of Death 18JUN65 P. of birth   Service Air Force Place Off Shore Military Reg 1 Town of Record Portland Unit 441ST BOMB SQD, 3960TH SW, SAC Death Code Non Hostile, Died Missing; Air Loss, Crash - Sea Fixed Wing - Crew Hometown   service # 19347003 Panel 02EAST - 11 Married Married MIA - BNR Medals   Tour Date   Comment Oregon MIA Cemetery

B52S BOMB VIET CONG TROOP CONCENTRATION
27 Big Bombers Used in Attack on Red Jungle Guam-Based Planes Enter Combat For First Time; 2 Lost on Flight
Washington (AP)
    The United States used 27 B52 intercontinental bombers Thursday to rain high explosive bombs on a Communist concentration in South Viet Nam. It was the first time B52 has ever been used in combat.
    The Defense Department said the strike took place in full daylight, Friday, Saigon time. A spokesman said 30 planes began the raid but two collided in flight before reaching the target. Anther had a malfunction which kept it from dropping its bombs.
    It marked the first time the huge Strategic Air Command jets have been used in Viet Nam war, or anywhere in fighting.
    The fleet pounded a Viet Cong concentration located north of Ben Cat In Binh Duong province to break up an impending attack, the Pentagon said.
    The jets flew to South Viet Nam from Guam, where two squadrons have been based. There was no immediate word on whether the 27 string bombers returned safely.
    2 Planes Collide
    The Pentagon said a co-pilot of one of the tanker refueling planes reporting seeing the two B52's collide.
    One crewman was known to have been picked up from waters off Luzon in the Philippines by an amphibious plane, a spokesman said, and other survivors were sighted in the water.
    The spokesman said officials were not absolutely certain what happened to the second of the colliding B52s because the fleet was maintaining radio silence.
    Apparently the first craft was tracked down by radar.
    A B52 normally carries a crew of six.
    The Pentagon said the planes dropped 1,000-pound and 750 pound bombs on Viet Cong forces in a heavily forested area 28 miles north of Saigon.
    A U.S. spokesman in Saigon said the B52s, which bomb from a relatively high altitude and do not dive on their targets, were used because of their greater effectiveness rather than for lack of other planes.
    The spokesman said an uninhabited area of jungle was involved. He said the attack was in full daylight and that sophisticated electronic systems had assured pinpoint accuracy.
    First details of the B52 raid were announced in Washington. There was no immediate reaction from Peking or Hanoi, although Radio Peking called a decision to send 20,000 more U.S. troops to Viet Nam "a new step on the path of widening the war of aggression."
    The B52 raid began about daybreak and the thunder of heavy bombs were audible in Saigon. There were big flare drops and barrages of artillery in the in the vicinity of Saigon during the early morning hours.
    At Bien Hoa, the big air base 15 miles north of Saigon, intense activity also was going on apparently in connection with the B52 strike and with ground operations that were to follow.
    A spokesman said Vietnamese ground forces would be moving into the forested area soon.
partial news article ( Tacoma News Tribune, Tacoma WA, 18 Jun 1965, front page)

2nd Portlander Missing in Bomb Raid Collision
M. Sgt. Harold J. Roberts, Jr., decorated air veteran, was the second Portland man reported missing in last Thursday's bomber collision during a raid on North Viet Nam.
    This was the third time the career airman has been downed in action. He was to retire from the U. S. Air Force in October.
    Roberts, son of Mrs. Fred W. Murray, 807 SE 187th Ave., is 43 years old. He was graduated from Benson High School in 1940
    Entered Navy His mother was informed Friday night that her son, a bomber squadron gunner was aboard one of the two Guam-based B52s bombers which collided over the China Sea near the Philippine Islands.
    The family did not believe Robers was on the same aircraft as Capt. Tyrrell Lowry, the second Portland man missing in the crash.
    Roberts entered the U. S. Navy at the start of World War II and few as a gunner in the South Pacific.
    While there the two-engine Ventura he was on was shot down by Japanese. Roberts rowed to within 20 miles of an island and was rescued after five days in an open raft.
    He was also shot down during the Korean War, but, according to the family, "came out with.45 blazing" and escapted capture.
    Roberts was credited with two enemy fighters in Korea.
    He received a decoration when he crawled out into a bomber wheel-well and inserted a lock-pin in the landing gear. The airplane was circling 10,000 feet above Lowry Air Force Base, CO. Roberts' wife, Vivian, formerly of Portland, lives in Sacramento CA, with their two children, a girl, 17, and a boy, 19.
( Tacoma News Tribune, Tacoma WA, 21 Jun 1965, front page)

MIA information from pownetwork.org MSGT Harold James Roberts Jr. (one of two Oregonian man involved) was a member of the crew of a Boeing B52 Stratofortress bomber that was involved in a mid-air crash with another B52 on 18 Jun 1965. Of the 12 men involved, 5 men successfully bailed out. More information available at Pownetwork.org

     WILLIAM ARTHUR OBERG

Birth 10MAR45 Rank PFC Date of Death 05JUL65 P. of birth   Service Marines Place Quang Nam S. Vietnam Town of Record Lafayette Unit H CO 2ND BN 3RD MARS Death Code Non Hostile, Died Other; Intentional Homicide Ground Casualty Hometown   service # 2021071 Panel 02EAST - 27 Married Single MIA -   Medals   Tour Date   Comment   Cemetery

     GLEN WAYNE BRADLEY

Birth 03OCT40 Rank SK2 Date of Death 10JUL65 P. of birth   Service Navy Place Gia Dinh S. Vietnam Town of Record Phoenix Unit HQS SUPPORT ACTIVITY Death Code Non Hostile, Died Illness, Disease; Heart Attack Ground Casualty Hometown   service # 5214239 Panel 02EAST - 34 Married Single MIA -   Medals   Tour Date   Comment   Cemetery

     WILLIAM JOHN LA GRAND

Birth 11MAY41 Rank CWO Date of Event 05SEP65 P. of birth   Service Army (Reserve) Place Unknown S.Vietnam Town of Record Portland Unit 1st Avn Bde 197th Aviation Co Death Code Hostile, Died Missing; Air Loss, Crash - Land Fixed Wing - Non Crew Hometown   service # W2215469 Panel 02EAST - 75 Married Married   Declared Dead 09SEP66 Medals Purple Heart   MIA BNR Comment Portlands MIA's Cemetery

MIA information from pownetwork.org William John La Grand was a passenger onboard an A1G aircraft which departed Bien Hoa on 5 Sep 1965. The propeller driven aircraft was seen to crash and no ejections were observed. No ground search was done as the area was under hostile control. La Grand and his pilot were declared killed in action. His body has not been recovered. More information available at Pownetwork.org

     LARRY ALAN LINDSEY

Birth 04AUG46 Rank PFC Date of Death 06SEP65 P. of birth   Service Marines Place Quang Nam S. Vietnam Town of Record Portland Unit   Death Code Hostile, Died; Guns, Small Arms Fire; Ground Casualty Hometown   service # 2107462 Panel 02EAST - 77 Married Single MIA -   Medals Purple Heart   Tour Date   Comment   Cemetery

Marine Killed In Viet Action Marine Pfc. Larry A. Lindsey, 19, son of Mrs. Ruby D. Stiles, 3717 SE Knapp St., was among five U.S. servicemen the Defense Department announced Tuesday killed in Viet Nam. Lindsey, a 1964 graduate of Franklin High School, was a native Portlander and enlisted in the Marine Corps in October, 1964. In addition to his mother and stepfather, he is survived by a brother, Lt. Jerry Lee Lindsey, stationed with the U.S. Army in Germany. (The Oregonian, Portland OR, 8 Sep 1965)

     DAVID ALLEN MORGAN

Birth 07NOV36 Rank SSG Date of Death 23SEP65 P. of birth   Service Army Place S. Vietnam Town of Record Salem Unit Special Forces A1-321 Death Code Hostile, Died Missing; Air Loss, Crash - Land Helicopter - NonCrew Hometown   service # 28789647 Panel 02EAST - 93 Married Single MIA -   Medals Purple Heart   Tour Date 27APR65 Comment   Cemetery