In the mid-morning of March 23, 1961, a United States Air Force C47 Skytrain nicknamed “Rose bowl” left Vientiane, Laos headed for Saigon, Vietnam.
The eight personnel on board were:
- Ralph Magee, Pilot
- Oscar B. (“OB”) Weston, Co-pilot
- Glenn Matteson, Mavigator
- Alfons (“Al”) Bankowski, Flight Engineer
- Frederick Garside, Assistant Flight Engineer
- Leslie Sampson, Radio Operator
- Major Lawrence R. (“Bob”) Bailey (Passenger from Army Attaché Office at Vientiane, Laos)
- Warrant Officer Edgar Weitkamp (Passenger Army Attaché Office at Vientiane, Laos)
The personnel on board were headed to Saigon for some R&R.
When the plane took off from Vientiane, instead of taking a direct route to Saigon, the plane first flew over north central Laos.
At the request of the government of Laos the flight was to include reconnaissance near the Plain of Jars. At the time, the Soviet Union was conducting large scale air lifts supplying munitions to the North Vietnamese and communist insurgency known as the Pathet Lao. The C47 was specially equipped with reconnaissance equipment and was trying to determine the radio frequencies that Soviet pilots used to locate their airfield.
As the plane flew near the town of Phonsavan in a northwest direction it passed near the Phonsavan airstrip.
Twin Barrel 37mm anti-aircraft guns and 12.7mm machine guns mounted on armored cars manned by four or five Vietnamese soldiers fired approximately 40 rounds at the aircraft. As the plane continued on it encountered additional fire and was hit.
Inside the plane seated near the rear, Lawrence Bailey heard the “pop pop pop” of the anti-aircraft fire over the sound of the engines. He looked out the windows and saw flames on the right wing.
Bailey yelled, “We’re Hit!” “Bail out”. Bailey was the only person on the plane wearing a parachute.
As the other crew members went past Bailey to the rear of the plane to add canopy chutes to their rigging, Bailey found the emergency door, which was already open, and flung himself out.
A third burst of anti-aircraft fire hit the plane. Black smoke emerged and the plane spiraled down in flames.
Lawrence Bailey landed with harsh impact and was stunned. When his head cleared he found himself in a field with buffalo grazing nearby. Off in the distance he saw the column of smoke from the crash. As he tried to stand, he realized he was severely injured and was in no condition to try to make it to the crash site.
Bailey was soon captured by Pathet Lao forces and taken to the hospital in Phonsavan. He was then moved to Sam Neua, a town near the Vietnam border and was imprisoned in solitary confinement in an unlit room for 17 months. Lawrence Bailey was the first Prisoner of War in South East Asia captured after the Geneva Agreements of 1954.
Over the next two days, the U.S. office in Vientiane received reports that the plane had been shot down, Bailey had been captured, and that the seven other personnel were killed in the crash.
By June the U.S. had interviewed individuals that witnessed the shooting of the airplane. The Pathet Lao acknowledged they captured Bailey but they declined all requests from the U.S. or any third parties to interview Bailey, visit the crash site, or recover any remains. First hand verification of the deaths of the seven servicemen was not possible.
The initial status of the seven servicemen was Missing in Action. In March of 1962 based on numerous reports with matching details and in part because no evidence of survival existed, a determination and report of death was issued. The status of the seven men became Killed in Action – Body Not Recovered.
Bailey was released following an agreement in August of 1962. The Pathet Lao continued to deny any party to visit the crash site or recover any remains. Even after the war ended and the Pathet Lao (renamed as Lao People’s Revolutionary Party) took control of the government of Laos in 1975, they continued to refuse access to the site and recovery of remains.
When Bailey was released, it was the first time that the U.S. could get a first-hand account of the crash from U.S. personnel. Bailey was able to provide details about the flight, being hit with anti-aircraft fire, miraculously parachuting, his capture and detainment. But Bailey wasn’t at the crash site. He only saw the smoke from a distance. He presumed that all of the others had died in the crash – but he wasn’t there.
For family and friends of the seven servicemen, it was the beginning of three decades of uncertainty. Many stories of servicemen surviving crashes being held as POWs; many stories of servicemen avoiding capture and going into hiding or being aided by villagers; and even different accounts of the crash indicating more than one person was able to parachute from the plane – all fueled the uncertainty and left families and friends frustrated and desperately desiring the information – good or bad – that would bring closure.
In July 1991, over 30 years after the crash, a team from the U.S.A. visited the crash site. Seven gravesites were near the crash site. Remains were found in four of the graves and were returned to the United States. Three of the graves had been previously excavated and the remains were no longer present.
In November 1991, the remains of Ralph Magee, Glenn Matteson, Frederick Garside, and Leslie Sampson were positively identified.
To this day, the remains of Edgar Weitkamp, Oscar Weston, and Alfons Bankowski have not been recovered.
The crash was the very first American aircraft shot down in the Vietnam war.
The deaths of the seven service men were among the very earliest American casualties in the Vietnam War. At the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC, the names on the wall are mostly in chronological order based on the date of death. The names of these seven servicemen are the 4th through 10th names listed on the first panel (1 East) of the Memorial.
The full video with the story of the crash, images of the servicemen, the plane, and the Phonsavan area is posted on YouTube:
