Keifel, Ernst Philip Jr.
Air Force Colonel

Ernst Philip Keifel Jr. from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Dauphin county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: February 10, 1966
Death details: On February 10, 1966, a B-57B Canberra (tail number 52-1575) took off from Da Nang Airbase, Vietnam, carrying two crew members and flying with a C-130 flare aircraft on a night strike mission over Laos. As the flight neared Ban Vangthon, Laos, the pilot radioed that he observed light and would drop down to investigate its source. While checking out the light source as a possible target, the Canberra was hit by enemy ground fire. The Canberra’s pilot radioed that he was in trouble and he and his other crew member would eject. The C-130’s crew soon observed the Canberra impact with the ground near east of Sepone, Savannakhet Province, Laos. Search and rescue forces later located the wreckage, but there was no trace of its two crew members and their fate was unknown.

Captain Ernst Philip Kiefel Jr. entered the U.S. Air Force from Pennsylvania and was a member of the 13th Bombardment Squadron. He was the navigator and bombardier aboard this Canberra when it crashed on February 10, 1966, and was lost with the aircraft. He remains unaccounted-for. While carried in the status of missing in action, the U.S. Air Force promoted Capt Kiefel to the rank of Colonel (Col). Today, Colonel Kiefel is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency