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| Andrea Garguilo sings the National Anthem |
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| Chaplain Dennis McLoone and Chapter Salute the Flag |
POW MIA Ceremony September 2010
Our Adopted POW's / MIA's
Name: Kevin O'Brien
Rank/Branch: O2/US Army
Unit: HHC, 2nd Battalion, 94th Artillery, 108th Artillery Group
Date of Birth: 30 August 1946 (Bronx, NY)
Home City of Record: Farmingville NY
Date of Loss: 09 January 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 162816N 1070200E (YD170220)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: O1G # 5059
Refno: 1357Source: Compiled from one or more of the following:
raw
data from U.S.
Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published
sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 2009.Other Personnel In Incident: Hugh M. Byrd (missing) SYNOPSIS: Kevin O'Brien was born in the Bronx on August
30, 1946. He also
lived for a time in Farmingville, New York. The blue-eyed, brown-haired
O'Brien, one of four siblings whose parents were deceased, attended
Tottenville High School and later Bronx and Suffolk County community
colleges.O'Brien attended Officers Candidate School at Fort
Sill,
Oklahoma, and was a
First Lieutenant when he was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters
Company, 2nd Battalion, 94th Artillery in Vietnam.On January 9, 1969, Capt. Hugh Byrd, pilot, and 1Lt.
Kevin
O'Brien,
observer, were on a visual reconnaissance mission over the Khe Sanh area of
South Vietnam in an O1G Bird Dog aircraft, tail #51-5059. Byrd's aircraft
flew from the 200th Aviation Company, 212th Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation
Brigade. O'Brian's job as observer from HHC, 2nd Battalion, 94th Artillery,
was to identify artillery targets. The plane diverted to assist a
reconnaissance team that was in enemy contact in the Khe Sanh area.After aiding the team and being relieved by another
aircraft,
Byrd headed
his plane back to Phu Bai. The weather was bad and the pilot reported at
1940 hours that that he was lost and the weather was worsening. The aircraft
was not equipped to fly instrument in meteorlogical conditions. Dong Ha and
other radar controllers tried to get a fix on the Bird Dog, and were able to
maintain constant radio contact, but were able only to get an imprecise
location. Based on the direction the aircraft told them it was flying, the
radar station advised it to climb because of mountains in the area. No
further transmissions were heard.Numerous searches were initiated following the disappearance
of the
aircraft, but were broken off after a few days due to weather conditions.
When searches were resumed when the weather cleared, they failed to locate
any wreckage. Byrd and O'Brien were declared Missing In Action.In August 1975, in the presumed crash area, a refugee
reported
seeing 2
downed U.S. aircraft which he described as one F5 jet and one L19. He was
told that 2 Americans on the L19 were killed and buried 1 kilometer from the
crash. The Army feels this report could possibly relate to Byrd and O'Brien.
(The O1 was formerly known as L19.)
CROSSON, GERALD JOSEPH JR.
Name: Gerald Joseph
Crosson, Jr.
Rank/Branch:
O2/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth:
12 March 1944
Home
City of Record: New York NY
Date of Loss: 16 May 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 173300N 1061800E (XE361472)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground:
F4D
Refno: 1177
Other Personnel in Incident: David J. Rickel (missing)
Source: Compiled
by Homecoming II Project with the assistance of one or more
of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews: 01
January 1990. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.
REMARKS: NO CHUTES OR BEEPERS WITNESSED
SYNOPSIS: The Phantom,
used by Air Force, Marine and Navy air wings, served
a multitude of functions including fighter-bomber and interceptor, photo and
electronic surveillance. The two man aircraft was extremely fast (Mach 2),
and had a long range (900 - 2300 miles, depending on stores and mission
type). The F4 was also extremely maneuverable and handled well at low and
high altitudes. The F4 was selected for a number of state-of-the-art
electronics conversions, which improved radar intercept and computer bombing
capabilities enormously. Most pilots considered it one of the "hottest"
planes around.
Capt. David J. Rickel, pilot, and Lt. Gerald J. Crosson, Jr.,
navigator/bombardier, were assigned an F4D mission over North Vietnam on May
16, 1968. Rickel was four years out of the Air Force Academy where he had
been named to the Superintendent's List all eight semesters he attended the
Academy. He had a promising career ahead.
At a point about
20 miles southwest of the city of Quang Khe, Quang Binh
Province, North Vietnam, Rickel and Crosson were shot down. Other air crew
in the area did not see parachutes indicating that the two had ejected from
their aircraft, nor did they hear emergency beeper signals. Searches were
eventually cancelled and both men were classified Missing in Action.
The Rickel and
Crosson knew that there was a good chance their men had been
captured because of circumstances surrounding the loss and the loss
location, and settled in to wait for the war to end, hoping for some word to
come.
When 591 American POWs were released from Southeast Asia in the spring of
1973, Rickel and Crosson were not among them. No returning POW reported
being held with them, and their names appeared on no lists provided by the
Vietnamese. The Vietnamese denied any knowledge of them.
It was generally
believed that the Americans who remained missing were dead,
including Rickel and Crosson.
When Saigon fell
to communist rule in 1975, tens of thousands of refugees
began fleeing Vietnam, bringing with them stories of Americans still held in
captivity in Vietnam. By 1990 the number of such reports had reached nearly
10,000. Many authorities now believe that there are hundreds of Americans
still in captivity, waiting for their country to free them.
Whether Rickel
and Crosson survived the crash of their aircraft to be
captured is not known. What seems certain, however, is that someone knows
what happened to them. They are prisoners of war, living or dead, until they
are found and returned home.
David J. Rickel
graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in
1964.
POW/ MIA Ceremony September 19, 2010
POW/MIA Ceremony September 18, 2011
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