Potts, Larry Fletcher
Marines Captain
Larry Fletcher Potts, age 25, from Smyrna, Delaware, Kent county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: April 7, 1972
Death details: On April 7, 1972, an OV-10A Bronco (tail number 68-3820) with two crew members conducted a naval gunfire spotting mission in the vicinity of Quang Tri, South Vietnam. During the mission, the aircraft was struck by an enemy surface-to-air missile (SAM) north of Dong Ha and crashed. Both crewmen ejected, and search and rescue forces sighted two parachutes. Searchers were only able to make radio contact with one crew member, but the other crew member was not contacted, and neither could be located following the incident.
Captain Larry Fletcher Potts, who entered the U.S. Marine Corps from Delaware, served with the 1st Air-Naval Gunfire Liaison Company and was the naval artillery observer aboard this Bronco at the time of its loss. Search and rescue forces were unable to contact him after the aircraft’s loss, and he remains unaccounted for. Today, Captain Potts is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Cemetery: Memorialized at Odd Fellows African American, Smyrna
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com
