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This Veteran has an (IMO) In Memory Of Headstone in Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii, as well as in Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery, Evansville, Vanderburgh County, Indiana.
On 24 May 1968 six UC-123B aircraft from the 12th ACS were conducting a RANCHHAND herbicidal spray mission on a Viet Cong base camp area near Xom Rach Goc at the southernmost tip of South Vietnam. The flight received heavy automatic weapons fire during the run and on pulling off the number two aircraft, UC-123B tail number 54-0588, was trailing smoke and flames from its port engine. The Provider's left wing then caught fire, the aircraft went into an uncontrolled roll, and crashed about a mile off-shore. Although the body of one crewman was recovered, the other two were not: LTC Emmett Rucker, Wichita Falls, TX, pilot, body not recovered, MAJ James L. Shanks, Freeport, NY, copilot, body not recovered, SGT Herbert E. Schmidt, Kansas City, MO, loadmaster
Aircraft/Missile Information
Model Fairchild C-123K Provider Length 78.48 ft | 23.92 m Width 110.01 ft | 33.53 m Height 33.99 ft | 10.36 m Engine(s) 2 x Pratt & Whitney R-2800-99W Double Wasp 18-cylinder radial piston engines generating 2,300hp each; 2 x General Electric J85-GE-17 turbojet engines developing 2,850lbf each. Empty Weight 35,367 lbs | 16,042 kg MTOW 59,525 lbs | 27,000 kg Max Speed 228 mph | 367 km/h | 198 kts Max Range 1,035 miles | 1,666 km Ceiling 28,871 ft | 8,800 m | 5.5 miles Climb Rate 1,150 ft/min Hardpoints 0 Armament None. Accommodations 3 + 62 Operators Cambodia, El Salvador, Laos, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Vietnam (South), Thailand, Venezuela and the United States of America.
