This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Sgt Duane Kimbrow (Skip)
to remember
Brownlee, Charles Richard, Col.
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.
This Veteran has an (IMO) In Memory Of Headstone in Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii, with another in Santa Fe National Cemetery, Santa Fe, NM
Note:"On Christmas Eve, 1968, Major Charles R. Brownlee's F105D aircraft was shot down over Laos between the city of Ban Phaphilang and the Ban Karai Pass. Brownlee successfully ejected from his plane and landed safely on the ground. On Christmas Day, Doug King volunteered to be aboard an HH3E helicopter leaving Nakhon Phenom Air Base to rescue Major Brownlee. The helicopter located the pilot, believed to be dead by then, and King was lowered 100 feet into the jungle to the ground. Once on the ground, King freed Brownlee from his parachute, secured him to the rescue device and dragged him to a point near the hovering helicopter. Suddenly enemy soldiers closed in and began firing. King radioed that he was under fire and for the helicopter to pull away. Brownlee was secured to the hoist cable, but King had not yet secured himself to the cable. When the helicopter pulled away, the hoist line snagged in a tree and broke, dropping King and Brownlee about 10 feet to the ground. No news surfaced about King or Brownlee until February 1986, when a Lao refugee came to the United States and reported that he had witnessed King's capture, and watched as he was taken away in a truck. The refugee's story matched most details of King's loss incident. Less clear were the details of Brownlee's fate, although a 1974 list published by the National League of POW/MIA Families states that he survived his loss incident."
Aircraft/Missile Information
Model Republic F-105D Thunderchief Length 64.24 ft | 19.58 m Width 34.94 ft | 10.65 m Height 19.59 ft | 5.97 m Engine(s) 1 x Pratt & Whitney J75-P-19W turbojet engine generating 24,500lbs of thrust with afterburn capability. Empty Weight 27,500 lbs | 12,474 kg MTOW 52,838 lbs | 23,967 kg Max Speed 1,390 mph | 2,237 km/h | 1,208 kts Max Range 920 miles | 1,480 km Ceiling 41,207 ft | 12,560 m | 7.8 miles Climb Rate 34,400 ft/min (10,485 m/min) Hardpoints 4 Armament 1 x 20mm cannon
Internal bomb load capacity of up to 8,000lbs (3,629 kg) with an overall capacity of 12,000lbs (5,442 kg) of munitions (with the inclusion of the external hardpoints).
Mission-specific armament can include AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, mine dispensers, air-to-surface missiles, rocket pods, fuel tanks, nuclear-tipped weapons and conventional dumb bombs. Accommodations 1
Major Variants
* YF-105A - Initial prototypes of which two produced; Pratt & Whitney J57-P-25 turbojet. * YF-105B - Second prototype of which four produced; J75-P-3 powerplant. * F-105 - Base model designation * F-105B - First production rate model * F-105D - All-Weather Attack Variant * F-105F - Final production designation; Two-seat conversion trainer model. * EF-105F - Wild Weasel conversion with special radar detection equipment and anti-radar air-to-surface missiles. * F-105G - Later designation of same EF-105F Wild Weasel Variant.
