| Date: 10 January 1968 |
| Aircraft type: F-4D Phantom |
| Serial Number: 66-8704 |
| Military Unit: 13 TFS, 432 TRW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Udorn |
| Name(s): |
| Capt Keith Norman Hall (POW) |
| 1Lt Earl Pearson Hopper (KIA) |
| On the 10th the USAF flew a raid on the Hoa Loc airfield, 15 miles west of Hanoi. As the TARCAP flight of four Phantoms approached Hai Duong en route to the target, it came under attack from a SAM battery. Capt Hall’s aircraft (call sign Rematch) was at 20,000 feet when it was rocked by a nearby explosion from an SA-2 missile. The aircraft’s hydraulic system was badly damaged and the aircraft became uncontrollable. Capt Hall ordered his navigator to bail out but Hopper replied that his seat failed to work and told Hall to eject first. Capt Hall also had difficulty ejecting but pulled his secondary ejection seat handle which then worked. Soon afterwards the aircraft broke up into three major pieces and only Capt Hall’s SAR beeper was heard and one parachute seen. Keith Hall was captured soon after he touched down and spent the next five years in prison. Between 1993 and 1998 three investigations and five excavations were mounted by joint US/Vietnamese teams during which human remains and personal effects were recovered. The remains were identified through dental analysis and other forensic evidence to be those of 1Lt Hopper and were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery in Phoenix, Arizona on 3 April 2009.
Capt Hall and 1Lt Hopper were on their first mission together when they were shot down although Keith Hall had flown 58 missions with other WSOs during his tour in Southeast Asia. He was released on 14 March 1973. This was the first Phantom lost by the 13th TFS since the Squadron had converted from the Thunderchief in October 1967 and moved from Korat to Udorn to become part of the 432nd TRW. |
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