Bors, Joseph Chester
Air Force Lieutentant colonel
Joseph Chester Bors, age 33, from Binghamton, New York, Broome county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: April 28, 1968
Death details: On April 28, 1968, an RF-4C Phantom II (tail number 66-0398) with two crew members took off from Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam, to perform a day photo reconnaissance mission over targets in South Vietnam. Bad weather in the first target area prompted the aircraft to proceed to the second target area. An artillery coordinator cleared the aircraft to proceed to the second target area, and the Phantom’s crew responded that they would not return to the first target area. This was the last radio transmission from the Phantom, and it was not seen again. Search and rescue teams searched the Phantom’s mission area, but found no evidence of the aircraft or its crew. Both crew members aboard the aircraft remain unaccounted for.
Major Joseph Chester Bors, who joined the U.S. Air Force from New York, was a member of the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, and was the navigator aboard the Phantom when it went missing. He was lost with the aircraft, and his remains have not been recovered. After the incident, the Air Force promoted Maj Bors to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col). Today, Lieutenant Colonel Bors is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
