Chattanooga Tennessee

William Thomas McPhail, age 29, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Hamilton county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Wednesday, May 22, 1968
Death details: On March 13, 2009, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Major William Thomas McPhail, missing from the Vietnam War. Major McPhail joined the U.S. Air Force from Tennessee and was a member of the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron. On May 22, 1968, he was the navigator aboard a C-130 Hercules (tail number unavailable) and one of nine crew members, on a night flare mission over northern Salavan Province, Laos. The Hercules crashed during its flight, killing all nine of its crew. Immediate search efforts were not conducted due to heavy anti-aircraft fire in the area. Between 1989 and 2008, joint Laotian, Vietnamese, and American search teams conducted field investigations and excavations in the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam, recovering aircraft wreckage and human remains for further analysis. In 2009, modern forensic techniques allowed for the individual identification of Maj McPhail’s remains among those recovered.
Cemetery: Arlington National

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com