This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Sgt Mark Bartovick
to remember
Palm, Willard George, Maj.
If you knew or served with this Airman and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Casualty Info
Home Town Oak Ridge
Last Address Forbes AFB, Topeka, Kansas
Casualty Date Jul 01, 1960
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Sea
Location Russia
Conflict In The Line of Duty
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Description On 1 July 1960, a Soviet MiG fighter north of Murmansk in the Barents Sea shot down a 6-man RB-47 crew. Two young USAF officers survived and were imprisoned in Moscow's dreaded Lubyanka prison.
Captains McKone and Olmstead were accused by the Russians of espionage, punishable by death, for allegedly violating the Soviet Sea frontier, although their plane had been many miles away from it at all times. They managed, however, to resist all Soviet efforts to obtain "confessions" through cajolery, trickery and threats of death, and were finally and unexpectedly released after seven months of imprisonment.
The Soviet Union had a history of shadowing, escorting and occasionally shooting down American planes flying over international waters near its borders; in the 10 years between 1950 and 1960, about 75 U.S. Navy and Air Force aircrewmen in 10 separate incidents lost their lives flying routine reconnaissance missions.
The RB-47H reconnaissance plane (S/N 53-4281) was assigned to the 343th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing based at Forbes Air Force Base, Kansas, and temporarily flying out of Brize-Norton Royal Air Force Base in England.
The planned route of the flight took the plane northward from England over international waters where the plane turned east and entered the Barents Sea northeast of Norway and continued a track in international waters approximately 50 miles from the Soviet Kola Peninsula. While the RB-47H was conducting its reconnaissance mission, a Soviet MiG-19 fighter assigned to the 206th Air Division based at Murmansk paralleled the USAF plane at a distance. The MiG fighter then turned toward the RB-47 on an intercept course, but passed about three miles behind it.
The radar course plotted by Capt. McKone called for a turn to the northeast at about 50 miles off Holy Nose Cape at the bottom of the Kola Peninsula; however, the Soviet MiG had returned and was now flying in close formation (40 feet) off the right wing of the RB-47. As the RB-47 (flying at 30,000 feet and 425 knots) started its turn to the left, the MiG (piloted by Vasily Polyakov) broke right towards the Soviet shoreline (away from the RB-47), turned back towards the USAF plane and started shooting. Capt. Olmstead immediately returned fire, but the RB-47 was no match for the nimble MiG and after a brief fight, the RB-47 was shot down about 6 p.m. (local time) over international waters in the Barents Sea. The MiG shot up the left wing, engines and fuselage in its initial firing pass, causing the RB-47 to enter a spin which Maj. Palm and Capt. Olmstead were able to pull out of; however, the MiG made a second firing pass at the plane and finished the job. Maj. Palm and Capt. Olmstead attempted to save the plane once again, but the damage was too serious and the bail out order was given.
At least three of the six crewmen -- Capt. Olmstead, Capt. McKone and Maj. Palm -- managed to eject from the stricken plane. The three reconnaissance officers (Ravens) seated in the converted bomb bay of the plane were (probably) unable to get out of the spinning plane.
Maj. Palm apparently died of exposure in the frigid water, but Capts. Olmstead and McKone were able to climb into their survival rafts and lasted long enough to be picked up by a Soviet fishing vessel after more than six hours in their tiny rafts. The USAF, unaware that the plane had been shot down -- the Soviets did not release this information for more than a week -- conducted a search for the missing plane and crew from July 2-7, but no trace was found.
The United States and Soviet Union had a long history of conducting surveillance operations against each other and in most cases, the reconnaissance aircraft of one country was intercepted and escorted by the fighters of the other. Since the CIA U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down May 1, 1960 (on a Soviet National "Holiday") over Sverdlovsk, the Soviets were particularly sensitive about U.S. aircraft conducting flights over Soviet territory.
President Eisenhower pledged to end the overflights, but the Soviet Air Force was under fairly intense internal pressure to protect its territory. The MiG pilot later indicated that the combination of this internal pressure and his belief that the USAF plane was headed for a secret naval base (unknown to the USAF crew actually) resulted in the shoot down of the RB-47H even though it was over international waters in international airspace.
Within days, Capts. Olmstead and McKone were sent to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow and held in separate cells while undergoing interrogation. The situation was possibly worsened by the fact that as military personnel, Capts. Olmstead and McKone were not required to give any more information than name, rank and service number (in accordance with the Geneva Conventions).
Mr. Powers, as a CIA pilot was not bound or protected by the Geneva Convention and the CIA briefed their pilots not to withhold information if forced or shot down over Soviet territory. Mr. Powers acted properly given his instructions, but the USAF pilots may have suffered because they were bound by a different set of standards and were basically instructed not to reveal any information that could have been useful to the Soviets.
The captains were not tortured, but were interrogated at length nearly every day. Gradually, the Soviets allowed a limited amount of mail to flow to and from family members; however, the prison mail censors and interrogators continually tried to get the men to indicate regret for the mission and to agree that the United States should cease similar reconnaissance missions. The USAF officers resisted all attempts to by the Soviets to get the "confessions" they sought as part of the pretrial "investigation." On 24 January 1961, after almost seven months as prisoners, Capts. Olmstead and McKone were released, never having been brought to trial. They never confessed to any wrongdoing and the Soviet espionage case was essentially groundless so the Soviets absolved them of any "criminal responsibility."
