Ganley, Richard Owen
Air Force Lieutenant colonel

Richard Owen Ganley from Keene, New Hampshire, Cheshire county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: November 24, 1969
Death details: On October 2, 1995, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Lieutenant Colonel Richard Owen Ganley, missing from the Vietnam War.

Lieutenant Colonel Ganley joined the U.S. Air Force from New Hampshire and was a member of the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron. On November 24, 1969, he was a navigator aboard a C-130A Hercules on a forward air control mission over Laos. While operating near Ban Salou, the Hercules was shot down by anti-aircraft fire, and Lt Col Ganley was killed in the crash. Immediate search and rescue efforts were prevented by heavy enemy presence in the area, and a friendly aircraft that later passed over the crash site saw no signs of survivors. In 1993, a joint U.S. and Laotian search team recovered remains from a crash site associated with Lt Col Ganley’s C-130A. In 1995, forensic analysis identified some of the recovered remains as those of Lt Col Ganley.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency