Paris Tennessee

William Commodore Jr. Wood, age 19, from Henry County Paris, Tennessee .

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Saturday, September 2, 1972
Death details: On September 2, 1972, an F-4E Phantom II (tail number 68-0335, call sign “Tufa 02”) with a crew of two departed Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base as the second aircraft in a flight of two on a combat mission over the Plain of Jars in northern Laos. After “Tufa 02” dropped ordnance on the target and began its pull out, it burst into flames and crashed into the ground near the target. The forward air controller (FAC) also crashed at about the same time, and the crew in the other plane on the mission could not tell whether “Tufa 02” and the FAC collided or whether they were both shot down. They saw two parachutes deploy from “Tufa 02,” and both parachutes appeared to land on the ground but no rescue beepers were detected. The aircraft circled the area and the crew spotted the crash site, but due to enemy activity in the area, a search and rescue effort could not be conducted. Captain William Commodore Wood Jr., who joined the U.S. Air Force from Tennessee, served with the 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron, 366 Tactical Fighter Wing. He was the pilot of “Tufa 02” 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 Captain Wood to the rank of Major (Maj). Today, Major Wood 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, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency