| Date: 28 March 1972 |
| Aircraft type: AC-130A Gunship II |
| Serial Number: 55-0044 |
| Military Unit: 16 SOS, 8 TFW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Ubon |
| Name(s): |
| Maj Irving Burns Ramsower (KIA) |
| Capt Curtis Daniel Miller (KIA) |
| Maj Henry Paul Brauner (KIA) |
| 1Lt Charles Joseph Wanzel (KIA) |
| Maj Howard David Stephenson (KIA) |
| Capt Richard Castillo (KIA) |
| Capt Richard Conroy Halpin (KIA) |
| Capt Barclay Bingham Young (KIA) |
| SSgt James Kenneth Caniford (KIA) |
| SSgt Merlyn Leroy Paulson (KIA) |
| SSgt Edwin Jack Pearce (KIA) |
| SSgt Edward DeWilton Smith (KIA) |
| A1C Robert Eugene Simmons (KIA) |
| A1C William Anthony Todd (KIA) |
| On the night of the 28th/29th an AC-130 Spectre gunship (call sign Spectre 1) set off from Ubon on a truck hunting mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in southern Laos. As the aircraft approached the town of Muang Phine, about 35 miles west of Khe Sanh, it was seen to be hit by an SA-2 missile fired from one of the newly-established SAM sites in Laos. The aircraft burst into flames, crashed and exploded. No parachutes were seen but an emergency beeper signal was picked up briefly. A SAR task force found no sign of any survivors although the search of the area was limited due to intense ground fire. The Pathet Lao subsequently issued a news release claiming that they had shot down the aircraft. This AC-130 was painted with nose art and the name ‘Prometheus’ and had previously suffered battle damage in December 1971 when both propellers on the starboard engines were shot off.
Following a joint US/Laotian excavation of the crash site in February 1986, the remains of at least nine of the crew were returned on 1 March and identified. However, as the identification in at least two cases rested on the identity of a single tooth or piece of bone, and because the USAF had earlier excavated another crash site and claimed it to be the AC-130, some of the families of the deceased did not then accept the identification. In 2005 and 2006 further excavations of the crash site found more human remains and personal effects resulting in the positive identification of four more of the crew. In June 2010 the DPAA announced that all 14 of the crew had now been positively identified. A group burial stone in Arlington National Cemetery commemorates the loss of the crew of the AC-130 while individually identified remains were returned to the families for burial. |
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