| Date: 30 June 1965 |
| Aircraft type: O-1F Bird Dog |
| Serial Number: 55-4649 |
| Military Unit: 19 TASS, 34 TG |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Bien Hoa |
| Name(s): |
| Capt Paul Ralph Windle (KIA) |
| Maj Joseph E Parker (US Army) (KIA) |
| Capt Windle and his observer, artilleryman Maj Parker, were flying an FAC mission near the village of Cheo Reo in Darlac province in South Vietnam in support of the Vietnamese Airborne Brigade. Windle was directing an attack by an F-100 when his Bird Dog was hit by ground fire and crashed on a rocky hillside. Capt Windle was one of the original members of the Jungle Jim squadron and flew two tours in Vietnam as pilot in the B-26 before converting to the A-1E for his third tour. However, on arriving back in South Vietnam Capt Windle was reassigned to fly the O-1 as an FAC. He had flown just over 100 FAC missions when he was shot down. After his death, the small airport at Greensburg, Kansas, was named in his honour as it was at this airfield that Paul Windle learned to fly in the early 1950s before joining the Air Force. |
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