Williams, Billie Joe
Air Force Lieutenant colonel
Billie Joe Williams from Malden, Missouri, Dunklin county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Saturday, December 9, 1972
Death details: On December 17, 1990, the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii (CILHI, now DPAA) identified the remains of Lieutenant Colonel Billie Joe Williams, missing from the Vietnam War.
Lieutenant Colonel Williams joined the U.S. Air Force from Missouri and was a member of the 14th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron. On December 9, 1972, he was the aircraft commander aboard an RF-4C Phantom II (serial number 68-0597) on a photo-reconnaissance mission over enemy territory in Vietnam. The Phantom was downed by an enemy surface-to-air missile during the mission, and Lt Col Williams was killed in the incident. Search and rescue aircraft that arrived in the area were unable to recover Lt Col Williams at the time, and enemy presence prevented further search efforts. In September 1990, the Vietnamese government returned a set of unidentified remains to U.S. custody which were identified as those of Lt Col Williams.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency