Olds, Ernest Arthur
Air Force col

Ernest Arthur Olds from Salisbury, Maryland, Wicomico county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: March 11, 1968
Death details: North Vietnam
Cemetery: On August 2, 1996, Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Colonel Ernest Arthur Olds Jr., missing from the Vietnam War.
Colonel Olds entered the U.S. Air Force from Maryland and was a member of the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On March 11, 1968, he was the aircraft commander aboard an F-4D Phantom II (tail number 66-7719, call sign “Blackjack 02”) on an armed reconnaissance mission over Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. Just outside the target area, the aircraft crashed for unknown reasons, killing Col Olds. His remains were not recovered at the time of his loss. In 1988, the Vietnamese government repatriated human remains to U.S. custody and analysts subsequently identified Col Olds from these remains.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency