Cecil Carrington Perkins Jr., age 25, from Portsmouth, Virginia, Portsmouth county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, December 14, 1971
Death details: On December 14, 1971, a U-21A aircraft (tail number: 66-18041; call sign: Longtrip 041) with two crew members and four passengers took off from Phu Bai, Republic of (South) Vietnam, on an administrative mission to Da Nang. During the flight, the aircraft experienced an in-flight emergency, and the pilot radioed that he had lost an engine and had a fire. Within minutes of this transmission, all radio and radar contact with “Longtrip 041” was lost. They immediately launched search and rescue aircraft, but bad weather soon forced to return to base. Searches continued for the next three days but failed to locate any of the crew or its passengers.
Captain (CPT) Cecil Carrington Perkins Jr. entered the U.S. Army from Virginia and served in the Combat Assault Company, 165th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade. He was the copilot of “Longtrip 041” when it was lost, and his remains have not been recovered. Today, Captain Perkins is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.