ALLEE, RICHARD KENNETH
REMAINS IDENTIFIED 04/30/98

Name: Richard Kenneth Allee
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 354th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Takhli Airbase
Date of Birth: 14 December 1935
Home City of Record: Port Jervis NY
Date of Loss: 21 December 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 173000N 1053900E (WE705360)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F105D
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

REMARKS:

Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S.
Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published
sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK.


SYNOPSIS: Capt. Richard K. Allee was assigned to the 354th Tactical Fighter
Squadron at Takhli Airbase Thailand. On 21 December 1968, his F105D aircraft
was number two in a flight of four aircraft sent on a combat mission which took
them over Khammouane Province, Laos.

At at point near the city of Na Phao and a few miles southwest of the Mu Gia
pass, Allee's aircraft was hit by hostile ground fire, caught on fire and
crashed in a wooded area. The Mu Gia pass is a break in the mountains that form
the border of Laos and Vietnam. The area was one of the most heavily traveled
sections of the famed Ho Chi Minh Trail, and between spring of 1965 and
December 1971, 43 American airman would disappear in a 33 mile square area
surrounding the Mu Gia Pass without a trace.

Other aircraft in the flight saw no parachutes, nor were emergency beepers
heard. If Allee ejected safely, no one could tell. But because the possibility
existed that he did, Allee was placed in a category of Missing In Action.

The families of the nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos impatiently awaited the
end of the war. Pathet Lao news releases indicated that "tens of tens" of
Americans were being held in Laos. To their horror, however, not one American
was released from Laos at the end of the war. The U.S. refused to negotiate
with the Pathet Lao, a "government" which they did not recognize.

Unfortunately, since American involvement in Southeast Asia ended in 1975, no
negotiations have occurred which would free the captives in Laos, and their
families wait in anguished uncertainty.

As thousands of reports mount that Americans are still alive in captivity,
including some tantalizing and very specific ones regarding Laos prisoners,
these families can only wait helplessly, waiting for someone to rescue their
men. Richard Allee might be one of the hundreds many authorities believe are
still alive. What are we doing to bring him home?

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