Green, Donald George
Air Force Captain

Donald George Green, age 33, from Los Angeles County Baldwin Park, California .

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Tuesday, November 16, 1965
Death details: Captain Donald George Green, who joined the U.S. Air Force from California, served with the 469th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On November 16, 1965, he piloted a single-seat F-105D Thunderchief (tail number 62-4332) on a combat mission over North Vietnam. As the flight left the target, Capt Green radioed that his aircraft had been hit by fragments of a surface to air missile, and that he was going to try to fly it to the Gulf of Tonkin and bail out near an Allied destroyer. Pilots in the flight informed Capt Green that his aircraft was on fire and suggested that he bail out as soon as possible. Although Capt Green managed to get the Thunderchief to the Gulf of Tonkin, it broke in half and disintegrated before he could bail out. His body could not be recovered. Today, Captain Green is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual’s case to be in the analytical category of Non-recoverable.

Source: National Archives, dpaa