| Date: 14 June 1969 |
| Aircraft type: F-105D Thunderchief |
| Serial Number: 60-5381 |
| Military Unit: 354 TFS, 355 TFW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Takhli |
| Name(s): |
| Maj Harold Kahler (KIA) |
| Another pilot was lost on a Barrel Roll mission on the 14th. Two Thuds were searching for trucks on a road in northern Laos but failed to find any. However, they did find a bridge and a ford near Ban Na Muang and requested permission to attack this new target. The lead aircraft rolled in to drop its bombs followed by Maj Kahler. The leader saw a flash of light in his rear-view mirror and tried to contact Kahler without success. Assuming that Maj Kahler had been shot down by AAA, the leader quickly searched the area before he was forced to return for lack of fuel. A search team later located the wreckage of Maj Kahler’s F-105 (call sign Mantis) but found no sign of the pilot. On the same day, the Pathet Lao claimed to have shot down an American aircraft and that the pilot had been “suitably punished”! Whatever the punishment was, Harold Kahler, a Second World War veteran, was never seen again. Thunderchief 60-5381 was painted as ‘Miss Marie’ when it served with the Korat Wing. |
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