Crain, Carroll Owen Jr.
Navy Commander

Carroll Owen Jr. Crain, age 33, from Memphis, Tennessee, Shelby county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Wednesday, March 8, 1967

Death details: On March 8, 1967, an A-3B Skywarrior (bureau number 144627, call sign “Hollygreen 5”) with three crew members took off from the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA 63) on a mine-laying mission over North Vietnam. En route to the target area, a support aircraft radioed “Hollygreen 5” and requested that it delay its arrival to the target area by ten minutes, which was acknowledged. This was the last radio contact with the Skywarrior, and it failed to return to the Kitty Hawk. Search efforts along its flight path and the surrounding area failed to locate any sign of “Hollygreen 5” or its crew.

Lieutenant Commander Carroll Owen Crain Jr., who entered the U.S. Navy from Tennessee, served with Heavy Attack Squadron 4. He was a crew member aboard this Skywarrior at the time of its disappearance on March 8, 1967. He remains unaccounted-for. Following the incident, the Navy promoted LCDR Crain to the rank of Commander (CDR). Today, Commander Crain 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, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency