James Alan Hockridge from Rochester, New York, Monroe county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, October 17, 1972
Death details: On October 25, 1977, the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii (CILHI, now DPAA) identified the remains of Major James Alan Hockridge, missing from the Vietnam War.
Major Hockridge joined the U.S. Air Force from New York and was a member of the 429th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On October 16, 1972, he piloted an F-111A Aardvark (serial number 67-066) on a night strike mission over enemy territory in Vietnam. His aircraft went down during the mission, and he was killed in the crash. Search and rescue efforts failed to locate the Aardvark’s crash site and his body was not recovered at the time. In September 1977, the Vietnamese government returned a set of remains tentatively associated with Maj Hockridge, and forensic analysis confirmed the identification shortly thereafter.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency