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MSgt Gerald Lamirand (Jerry)
to remember
Booth, James Ervin, Maj.
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Major Jim Booth was the second of nine children born on a farm near Bethany, Missouri. All his life, he knew that what he wanted to do was fly. When he grew up, Booth worked for a while as an economic analyst for the state of California; then he joined the Air Force and received weapons/systems training onboard the F4 phantom fighter jet.
On 23 June 1968, Lt. Col. Donald F. Casey, pilot and then 1st Lt. James E. Booth, weapons systems officer; comprised the crew of the lead aircraft (serial #66-8724), call sign Machete 01, in a flight of two conducting a night armed reconnaissance mission along Route 110, which was also known as IR 922A/Black Route, in western Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. The mission identifier was Steel Tiger, Cricket Area 4, a region that included the portion of North Vietnam bordering Laos that included the Mu Gia Pass, one of the two primary gateways into the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail via Route 15.
Machete flight arrived in the target area at approximately 2000 hours and immediately established radio contact with the Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center (ABCCC), call sign Alleycat, controlling all air operations in the region. After receiving current weather and mission data, the ABCCC handed the flight over to the Forward Air Controller (FAC) who would direct the mission itself. Shortly thereafter he cleared the flight into the target area to search for lucrative targets of opportunity.
At 2008 hours, Lt. Col Casey spotted some truck lights traveling along Route 110. He notified the rest of the flight of his find before reporting, Rolling in for their bomb run. Machete 02 lost sight of Lead in the nights darkness before observing a large fireball on the side of a hill. Cadillac Flight, a second flight of F4s operating in the area, notified Alleycat that it had seen burning wreckage and tried to establish radio contact with the downed aircrew, but could not make contact with anyone.
The crash site was located in a very rugged, populated and forested region near the village of Xuan Hoa approximately 3 miles due west of Route 110 and 3 miles due east of Route 101, 17 miles northeast of the Mu Gia Pass, 38 miles southwest of Mui Ron Ma and 53 miles northwest of Dong Hoi, Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam.
The ABCCC called for a visual and electronic search and rescue (SAR) operation to immediately begin for Lt. Col. Casey and 1st Lt. Booth. However, it the darkness no parachutes were seen and no emergency radio beepers heard.
At the time the formal search was terminated, Donald Casey and James Booth were declared Missing in Action. In their post-mission debriefing, the other pilots reported seeing no enemy ground fire prior to seeing the fireball on the ground. Because of that, they thought it was possible that Machete Lead was unaware of the elevation of the karst ridges in the target area and flew into the terrain.
Other Comments:
This Veteran has an (IMO) In Memory Of Headstone in Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii, as well as one in Miriam Cemetery, Bethany, Missouri and Golden Gate National Cemetery San Bruno, San Mateo County, CA.
Aircraft/Missile Information
From Wikipedia: The F-4 Phantom was designed as a fleet defense fighter for the U.S. Navy, and first entered service in 1960. By 1963, it had been adopted by the U.S. Air Force for the fighter-bomber role. When production ended in 1981, 5,195 Phantom IIs had been built, making it the most numerous American supersonic military aircraft.[7] Until the advent of the F-15 Eagle, the F-4 also held a record for the longest continuous production with a run of 24 years. Innovations in the F-4 included an advanced pulse-doppler radar and extensive use of titanium in its airframe.[8] Despite the imposing dimensions and a maximum takeoff weight of over 60,000 pounds (27,000 kg),[9] the F-4 had a top speed of Mach 2.23 and an initial climb of over 41,000 ft per minute (210 m/s).[10] Shortly after its introduction, the Phantom set 15 world records,[11] including an absolute speed record of 1,606.342 mph (2,585.086 km/h), and an absolute altitude record of 98,557 ft (30,040 m).[12] Although set in 1959?1962, five of the speed records were not broken until 1975 when the F-15 Eagle came into service.[11] The F-4 could carry up to 18,650 pounds (8,480 kg) of weapons on nine external hardpoints, including air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, and unguided, guided, and nuclear bombs.[13] Since the F-8 Crusader was to be used for close combat, the F-4 was designed, like other interceptors of the day, without an internal cannon;[14] In a dogfight, the RIO or WSO (commonly called "backseater" or "pitter") assisted in spotting opposing fighters, visually as well as on radar. It became the primary fighter-bomber of both the Navy and Air Force by the end of the Vietnam War. Due to its distinctive appearance and widespread service with United States military and its allies, the F-4 is one of the best-known icons of the Cold War. It served in the Vietnam War and Arab?Israeli conflicts, with American F-4 crews achieving 277 aerial victories in South East Asia and completing countless ground attack sorties.[15] The F-4 Phantom has the distinction of being the last United States fighter to attain ace status in the 20th century. During the Vietnam War, the USAF had one pilot and two WSOs,[16] and the USN one pilot and one RIO,[17] become aces in air-to-air combat. It was also a capable tactical reconnaissance and Wild Weasel (suppression of enemy air defenses) platform, seeing action as late as 1991, during Operation Desert Storm.[4][5] The F-4 Phantom II was also the only aircraft used by both of the USA's flight demonstration teams.[18] The USAF Thunderbirds (F-4E) and the USN Blue Angels (F-4J) both switched to the Phantom for the 1969 season; the Thunderbirds flew it for five seasons,[19] the Blue Angels for six.[20] The baseline performance of a Mach 2-class fighter with long range and a bomber-sized payload would be the template for the next generation of large and light/middle-weight fighters optimized for daylight air combat. The Phantom would be replaced by the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon in the U.S. Air Force. In the U.S. Navy, it would be replaced by the F-14 Tomcat and the F/A-18 Hornet which revived the concept of a dual-role attack fighter.[21]
