Hanley, Terence Higgins
Navy Lieutenant
Terence Higgins Hanley, age 29, from Gardiner, Maine, Kennebec county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: January 1, 1968
Death details: On January 1, 1968, an RA-3B Skywarrior (bureau number 144847, call sign “Quiz Show 910”) with a crew of three took off from the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA 34) on a night reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam. The mission was flown under radio silence at the request of the aircraft commander; however the aircraft was under constant tracking by friendly radar. With its mission completed, the Skywarrior left North Vietnamese airspace, headed southeast toward the Gulf of Tonkin, and was lost on radar. Controllers unsuccessfully attempted to establish radio contact with the aircraft. A three day aerial search and rescue effort failed to locate the aircraft or a crash site, and the crew were declared missing.
Lieutenant Terence Higgins Hanley, who joined the U.S. Navy from Maine, served with Heavy Photographic Squadron 61. He was the navigator aboard the Skywarrior when it disappeared, and he remains unaccounted for. Today, Lieutenant Hanley 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.
Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual’s case to be in the analytical category of Non-recoverable.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency