Callan, Arthur Delbert
Air Force Captain

Arthur Delbert Callan from South Dakota, Pennington county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, May 15, 1952

Death details: On the evening of May 15, 1952, an RB-26C Invader (tail number 44-35668, call sign “Mongoose 45”) departed Kimpo (K-14) Air Base with a crew of three aviators. The briefed mission was a night photoreconnaissance operation to collect information on enemy supply line around Taegwan-dong and Sonchan. As the Mongoose 45 approached Anju, North Korea, it came under attack from an enemy aircraft. The pilot immediately reported that the aircraft had caught fire and that one of the two navigators aboard was wounded. Controllers attempted to steer the RB-26 to safety at Cho-do (island); however, no further radio contact could be established with the aircraft after the distress call. As near as we can determine, none of the three aviators were ever alive in enemy hands.

Captain Arthur Delbert Callan, who joined the U.S. Air Force from South Dakota, served with the 12th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group. He was the nose navigator (photographer) aboard the RB-26C when was lost. No returning POWs mentioned contact with Capt Callan, nor was he seen at any known holding point, interrogation center, hospital, or permanent POW camp. He remains unaccounted-for. Today, Captain Callan is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency