Ayres, Gerald Francis
Air Force Major

Gerald Francis Ayres, age 35, from New Castle, Delaware, New Castle county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Sunday, June 18, 1972
Death details: On October 12, 1994, the Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JFA-FA) identified the remains of Major Gerald Francis Ayres, missing from the Vietnam War.

Major Ayres entered the U.S. Air Force from Delaware and was a member of the 16th Special Operations Squadron. On June 18, 1972, he was a sensor operator aboard an AC-130A gunship (tail number 55-0043, call sign “Spectre 11”) that took off from Ubon Airfield, Thailand, on an armed reconnaissance mission over A Shau Valley, South Vietnam. The aircraft was hit by an enemy surface-to-air missile and crashed near the border of Laos and Vietnam. Maj Ayers was killed in the incident and his remains could not be recovered at the time. In 1993, investigators visited the crash site and recovered personal artifacts and human remains. Maj Ayers was identified among the remains recovered.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/ MIA Accounting Agency