McDonald, Emmett Raymond
Air Force Major

Emmett Raymond McDonald from Bellevue, Washington, King county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Tuesday, May 31, 1966
Death details:  On May 31, 1966, a C-130 Hercules (tail number 64-0511, call sign “Radium 1”) with a crew of eight departed Da Nang Air Base, South Vietnam, on a classified mission over North Vietnam. No radio communications were expected. When the aircraft failed to return to base, search and rescue efforts were initiated, but were unsuccessful. Several days later, the North Vietnamese announced that they had shot down a C-130, and that they had recovered and buried several bodies. The aircraft is believed to have been shot down in Tranh Hoa Province.

Captain Emmett Raymond McDonald, who joined the U.S. Air Force from Washington, served with the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron. He was the navigator aboard the C-130 when it disappeared, and his remains were not recovered. Following the incident, the Air Force promoted Capt McDonald to the rank of Major (Maj). Today, Major McDonald is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency