Walker, Samuel Franklin, Jr., CMSgt

Then SSgt. Samuel Walker and his crew were killed in a collision with one of the B-57E Canberras (#55-4284) involved in the night operation causing both aircraft to crash. Both crews remain MIA

CMSgt. Samuel F. Walker Jr., United States Air Force. Then Staff Sargent Samuel F. Walker Jr. was one of two Loadmasters, part of a seven-man crew flying the Fairchild C-123K Provider aircraft, call sign, Candlestick 44. On December 13, 1968 the aircraft took off from Nakhon Phanom Airfield located in northern Thailand. Their nighttime Forward Air Controller (FAC) Search and Destroy mission was to guide several B57B bombers onto a convoy of enemy trucks traveling along Routes 911 and 912. These routes cut through rugged jungle covered mountains near the DMZ and was part of the complicated Ho Chi Minh trail southwest of the Lao/North Vietnamese border.

At 0300 hours, as Candlestick 44 was nearing its target, 30 miles southwest of the Ban Karai Pass in Laos, the crew was jolted by a staggering blow on the top of the aircraft by a B57B aircraft, call sign, Yellowbird 72.The impact caused in an explosion in the aft section of the aircraft resulting in the aircraft losing control.

After regaining consciousness, C-123K pilot, First Lieutenant Thomas H. Turner exited through the cockpit window after finding the co-pilot's seat empty and fire coming into the cockpit from the fuselage. After parachuting, Lieutenant Turner noted that there was another parachute below his along with 2 or 3 fires on the ground. Lieutenant Turner was rescued from a treetop on December 13th. The pilots beeper was the only one heard by the Search and Rescue (SAR) team. Unfortunately, all other crewmen from both aircraft involved in the tragic collision were declared Missing in Action at the same time. The area was under enemy control, no ground search was possible. These two aircraft crews are among nearly 600 Americans who disappeared in Laos.

Let we spare no effort to secure the repatriation of the remains of those who died bravely in the defense of liberty and the full accounting of those missing. Thank you.  By Darryrl Johnson

This Veteran has an (IMO) In Memory Of Headstone in Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii with another in Long Island National Cemetery (VA) - Farmingdale, New York

  
Thomas Alva Edison High school, 64 Missing in Action (MIA),