Cornelius, Samuel Blackmar, Maj

CAPT Samuel B. Cornelius was the pilot of an F4E Phantom assigned a strike mission in Cambodia on June 16, 1973. His electronic weapons officer on the flight was CAPT John J. Smallwood. Over the target area, the F4 was hit by hostile fire and crashed. No parachutes were seen, and no  emergency beeper signals were heard indicating that the crew ejected safely. The official word was that their survival was unlikely.  Few American planes were shot down in Cambodia during this time period. Peace documents had been signed in Paris ending hostilities in Vietnam in January of that year, but strikes in Cambodia continued. Another F-4 piloted by Douglas Martin and with backseater Samuel L. James had been shot down April 18. One of the crew of an HH53C helicopter, MSGT David V. McLeod, Jr., went missing on June 14, 1973. These were the only Americans missing during the spring and summer of 1973 in Cambodia...

This Veteran has an (IMO) In Memory Of Headstone in Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii with another memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA.

From POW Network: 336th TFS, 4th TFW: TDY from SJ. CAPT Samuel B. Cornelius was the pilot of an F4E Phantom assigned a strike mission in Cambodia on June 16, 1973. His electronic weapons officer on the flight was CAPT John J. Smallwood. Over the target area, the F4 was hit by hostile fire and crashed. No parachutes were seen, and no emergency beeper signals were heard indicating that the crew ejected safely. The official word was that their survival was unlikely.