| Date: 27 December 1967 |
| Aircraft type: F-4B Phantom |
| Serial Number: 153005 |
| Military Unit: VF-114 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Kitty Hawk |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Cdr Leonard Murray Lee (KIA) |
| Lt(jg) Roger Burns Innes (KIA) |
| A section of two Phantoms from the Kitty Hawk was attacking a target on Cape Falaise, 25 miles north of Vinh, when one of the aircraft disappeared. The cloud base was only 1,000 feet but the section decided to perform a loft bombing manoeuvre which required the aircraft to run in at low level, pull up sharply and release the bomb as the aircraft approached the vertical. The low ceiling precluded the aircraft climbing very high without penetrating cloud but Lt Cdr Lee’s wingman put his bombs on the target. Lee went in and pulled up into the clouds and was not seen again by his wingman. His radar trace disappeared off the screen of an E-2 Hawkeye that was monitoring the raid. No sign of any wreckage or survivors could be found and no SAR beepers were heard. It was assumed that the aircraft (call sign Linfield 205) had crashed during the recovery from the loft manoeuvre.
In 1999 a fishing boat’s net caught on wreckage which was then investigated and found to be Phantom 153005. Human remains were recovered from the wreckage and returned to the USA on 14 June that year. The remains were positively identified as being those of the Lt Cdr Lee and Lt Innes the following year and buried in Arlington National Cemetery. |
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