Duggan, William Young
Air Force Lieutenant colonel
William Young Duggan, age 36, from Williamson County Leander, Texas .
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, December 31, 1971
Death details: On December 31, 1971, a F-4D Phantom II (tail number 66-7573, call sign “Owl 2”) with a crew of two departed Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base on a nighttime forward air controller (FAC) mission for a target area south of Mu Gia Pass on the Laotian border. When the aircraft was in the vicinity of grid coordinates WE 751 343, it was contacted by another FAC plane which passed on the target coordinates of several trucks in the area south of the pass. After heading for the target area, the F-4D failed to return to base within the appointed time. Electronic and visual searches were carried out, but were unsuccessful. Major William Young Duggan, who joined the U.S. Air Force from Texas, served with the 497th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 8th Tactical Fighter Wing. He was the pilot of the Phantom when it disappeared, and his remains were not recovered. Subsequent to the incident, the U.S. Air Force posthumously promoted Major Duggan to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col). Today, Lieutenant Colonel Duggan is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.
Source: National Archives, El Paso Times (1973), Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency