Cortland New York

William Phelps, age 23, from Cortland, New York, Cortland county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: November 23, 1971
Death details:  On November 23, 1971, an F-4e Phantom II (tail number 69-7562, call sign “Gunfighter 61”) with a crew of two departed Da Nang Airfield as one of two F-4s on a nighttime escort mission for an AC-119 gunship over Laos. Near the end of the mission, both F-4s were assigned targets on which to expend their ordnance. After the lead F-4 departed the area, “Gunfighter 61” dropped its ordnance and radioed that it was off the target. It then crashed for unknown reasons near the target, producing a large fireball which was seen by the AC-119 crew. No parachutes were observed, and no emergency beeper signals were received. A search and rescue team located the crash site in the Saravan Province of Laos, but could not recover any crew remains.

First Lieutenant William Phelps, who joined the U.S. Air Force from New York, served with the 4th Tactical Fighter Squadron. He was the navigator aboard the Phantom when it crashed, and his remains were not recovered.  Subsequent to the incident, and while carried in the status of missing in action (MIA), the U.S. Air Force promoted First Lieutenant Phelps to the rank of Captain (Capt). Today, Captain Phelps is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency