| Date: 29 April 1966 |
| Aircraft type: A-4E Skyhawk |
| Serial Number: 151047 |
| Military Unit: VMA-223, MAG-12 |
| Service: USMC |
| Home Base: Chu Lai |
| Name(s): |
| Capt William Francis Mullen (KIA) |
| The 29th was another bad day for the US in Southeast Asia with six aircraft and their pilots lost. Capt Mullen was taking part in a strike against gun emplacements near the Ban Karai Pass in Laos, close to the DMZ, when he was shot down on his first low level pass. His aircraft (call sign Oxwood 93) was last seen on fire entering cloud and heading towards the north. William Mullen, like so many other airmen lost over Laos, disappeared without a trace, despite initial hopes that he may have been captured when a beeper signal was picked up. Capt Mullen’s wife, Barbara, later wrote of the attempts to discover the fate of her husband in a book titled Every Effort. This was the first aircraft lost by VMA-223 since it arrived at Chu Lai in December 1965 and the 29th of April should have been a day of rejoicing as the Squadron reached its 10,000th accident-free flying hour on that day. |
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