Murphy, Terence Meredith
Navy Lieutenant junior grade

Terence Meredith Murphy from New York City, New York .

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Friday, April 9, 1965
Death details: On April 9, 1965, an F-4B Phantom II (tail number 151403, call sign “Show Time”) with two crew members took off from the USS Ranger (CVA 61) as part of a combat air patrol mission. The aircraft’s flight engaged enemy aircraft during the mission, and after breaking off from the engagement, the “Show Time” failed to rejoin its formation and could not be contacted by radio. No emergency transmissions were received. Sometime after breaking contact, the Phantom crashed into the Gulf of Tonkin. An extensive search was conducted, but there were no sightings of the missing aircraft or its crew. Lieutenant Junior Grade Terence Meredith Murphy, who joined the U.S. Navy from New York, was a member of Fighter Squadron 96 embarked aboard the Ranger. He was the pilot of the Phantom when it went down on April 9, 1965, and he was lost with the aircraft. His remains have not been recovered. Today, Lieutenant Junior Grade Murphy is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

Source: National Archives, Democrat and Chronicle (1967), Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency