Walter Philip Neel from Pasadena, California, Los Angeles county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Friday, April 18, 1952
Death details: Lieutenant Commander Walter Philip Neel, who joined the U.S. Navy from California, served with Attack Squadron 65 embarked aboard the USS Boxer (CV 21). On April 18, 1952, LCDR Neel took off from the Boxer piloting an AD4 Skyraider (bureau number 128953) as the leader of a flight of four aircraft on a rail cutting mission east of Kowon, North Korea. On his fourth bomb run over the target, LCDR Neel’s Skyraider lost a wing, which sent it cartwheeling to the ground. The flight members circled the wreck and reported that although the aircraft did not catch fire or explode, the pilot could not have survived the impact. LCDR Neel’s remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire. Today, Lieutenant Commander Neel is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency