Joseph Millard Stine, age 46, from Everett, Pennsylvania, Bedford county.
Spouse: Married
Service era: Vietnam
Military history: Started tour Sept. 27, 1966
Date of death: September 27, 1966
Death details: Hostile, died in North Vietnam. Body not recovered.
On September 27, 1966, an RF-4C Phantom II (tail number 650862) with a crew of two took off from Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam, on a nighttime photo reconnaissance mission to targets near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Vietnam. The last radio and radar contact placed the aircraft in the vicinity of grid coordinates XC 824 917. At that time the aircraft was scheduled to descend for low-level entry into North Vietnamese airspace, and therefore the loss of radar contact was considered normal. However, a scheduled radio call to the on-site air controller was not placed. When the aircraft failed to return to base, the two crew members were declared missing in action. Other aircraft in the area received no emergency beeper signals or other transmissions following the loss of contact. The aircraft’s estimated point of fuel exhaustion would have been on the border of Laos and North Vietnam, about five miles north of the DMZ. The reason for the aircraft’s disappearance remains unknown.
Cemetery: Arlington National
Source: National Archives, Department of Defense
