| Date: 15 March 1966 |
| Aircraft type: O-1E Bird Dog |
| Serial Number: 56-2530 |
| Military Unit: 22 TASS, 505 TACG |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Binh Thuy detached to Khe Sanh |
| Name(s): |
| Capt David Hugh Holmes (KIA) |
| The increasing intensity of air operations in the Steel Tiger sector of the Ho Chi Minh Trail resulted in several ‘friendly fire’ incidents that strained US relations with friendly Laotian forces. As a result the use of forward air controllers became more common in order to control air strikes more effectively. However, the war in Laos was not supposed to involve US forces and was highly secret, and FAC operations were even more dangerous than over South Vietnam as very few airmen survived captivity in Laos. A Bird Dog FAC (call sign Hound Dog 54) was flying over Route 9 on a Tiger Hound mission on 15 March when the pilot spotted a large concentration of North Vietnamese troops at a concealed truck park in the Xe Namkok river valley on the Trail, 11 miles northwest of Sepone. The truck park was protected by at least six gun emplacements and the Bird Dog was shot down on the eastern slopes of the valley near the village of Ban Keng Khan Kao. Another O-1E was sent to search the area and the pilot spotted Capt Holmes slumped in his cockpit, apparently unconscious or dead. A few minutes later a US Army OV-1A Mohawk flew up the valley and was also shot down although one parachute was seen. The loss of two aircraft and the discovery of large numbers of North Vietnamese troops prompted a five-hour attack on the area by tactical aircraft. A SAR force reached the downed Bird Dog the next day but there was no sign of Capt Holmes. |
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