Compton, Frank Ray
Navy Lieutenant

Frank Ray Compton, age 30, from Pittsylvania County Chatham, Virginia .

Parents: Frank Compton

Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Chatham High (1953), graduate of State Teachers College in Missouri

Date of death: Monday, March 21, 1966
Death details: Lieutenant Frank Ray Compton entered the U.S. Navy from Virginia and was a member of Attack Squadron 94, embarked aboard the USS Enterprise (CVAN 65). On March 21, 1966, he piloted a single-seat A-4C Skyhawk (bureau number 149515, call sign “Hoboken 406”) in a flight of three aircraft on an armed reconnaissance mission against enemy targets in North Vietnam. During the mission, the flight leader reported seeing a bright flash to his rear before losing visual and radio contact with LT Compton. At the time of the incident, other aircraft crews reported seeing surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and smoke in the direction of “Hoboken 406,” but saw no parachutes and detected no rescue beepers. LT Compton failed to return from the mission, and search operations failed to locate him. Today, Lieutenant Compton is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

Source: National Archives, The Bee (1966), Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency