The database contained on this site is a product of the imagination of Dave Lovelady after having read just a few pages of Chris Hobson's book, Vietnam Air Losses and finding that the book was available only as used copies for exorbitant prices. Chris was enthusiastic about the idea and agreed to allow his copyrighted material to be used on this site.  While Dave was designing the database, Chris was updating the manuscript.

The inputs to the database took about a month and comprised (at the time of this writing) 3,118 records. A record is a minimum of one aircraft but is often more than one.  The most aircraft involved in a single incident was six. Each aircraft includes the type of aircraft (both designation and nickname), its serial number, the military unit, the service that owned the aircraft, and its home base. We had to provide for up to 30 people in a single aircraft, and for each person we have a rank, first/middle name, last name, and disposition (KIA, POW, Survived, etc.). Since each record also contains day, month, year, and a narrative of the event, the minimum number of inputs for one record was 13, and the maximum was 129. That means more than 100,000 bits of data were input, and I say that to observe that there are probably some mistakes. We've corrected the ones we found, but if you discover some, please let us know by completing our Contact form. We would greatly appreciate it.

The important feature of a database is that it can be searched very quickly. You can do that by going to our Search Forms.  To get the most out of your search, you might want to look through our tutorial on how to use the Search Forms to find what you're looking for while avoiding the pitfall of finding nothing when you know something should be there.

Chris has gone to great lengths to try to ensure that the data we have is accurate.  We recognize that it is sparse in some instances, and it's also possible that the official and unofficial records are not complete. If you were a participant in one of the events and have something to add, please use our Contact form to communicate with us. After we've connected and heard what your vantage point was, we may ask for your input to add to the record. Please bear with us when we say we are protective of the integrity of the information on the site. We're leery of hearsay or squadron legend. If you were an eye witness, even though it was more than 50 years ago, we'd appreciate hearing your side of the story. What we will do is retain the original narrative and add the first-person narrative to that. For a real example of how we will do that, you're welcome to scroll to the bottom of the Search Forms page and put "Lovelady" in the Narrative Keywords blank in the Narrative Search Form.

We hope that our efforts enable the memory of lost aircraft and lost loved ones to withstand the ravages of time and be known to families and friends as the truth.