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, 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
