CARLOCK, RALPH L.
Name: Ralph L. Carlock
Rank/Branch: USAF, O4
Unit:
Date of Birth: 01 September 32
Home City of Record: Des Plaines, IL
Date of Loss: 04 March 67
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 192859N 1035958E
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F-105D
Other Personnel In Incident:
Source: Compiled by THE P.O.W. NETWORK 02 February 93 from the
following published sources - POW/MIA's -- Report of the Select Committee
on POW/MIA Affairs United States Senate -- January 13, 1993. "The Senate
Select Committee staff has prepared case summaries for the priority cases
that the Administration is now investigating. These provide the facts about
each case, describe the circumstances under which the individual was lost,
and detail the information learned since the date of loss. Information in
the case summaries is limited to information from casualty files, does not
include any judgments by Committee staff, and attempts to relate essential
facts. The Committee acknowledges that POW/MIAs' primary next-of- kin know
their family members' cases in more comprehensive detail than summarized
here and recognizes the limitations that the report format imposes on these
summaries."
On March 4, 1967, Major Carlock departed Takhli Royal Thai Air
Force Base in an F-105D on an armed reconnaissance mission over
Laos. While attacking a truck, the flight leader saw Major
Carlock's aircraft hit by enemy fire in the lower center of the
fuselage and began to burn. The flight leader radioed Major
Carlock to bail out but did not receive a response. The aircraft
crashed in the area of Nong Het, Xieng Khouang Province, just
inside Laos from Nghe An Province, North Vietnam, and with no
evidence Major Carlock had parachuted from the aircraft prior to
the crash. Forty minutes later there was a weak beeper from the
vicinity of the crash site but it was believed to be a result of
fire at the crash site and was not pilot activated. Major Carlock
was declared missing in action.
On March 5, 1967, the pro-communist Patriotic Neutralist radio
station news service reported its forces in Long Met District,
Vientiane Province, had shot down a U.S. F-105 aircraft and
captured the pilot. U.S. intelligence concluded at the time that
this report may have been partially derived from the loss of Major
Carlock's aircraft which crashed in Xieng Khouang Province and not
in Vientiane Province and the report was not believed to represent
a truthful statement that the pilot had been captured.
Returning U.S. POWs had no information on the precise fate of Major
Carlock. After Operation Homecoming Major Carlock was declared
dead/body not recovered, based on a presumptive finding of death.
In June 1986, the Joint Casualty Resolution Center received
information from a source who described the crash of an aircraft
similar to an F-105 in Xieng Khouang Province which had occurred in
either 1971 of 1972. Two airmen reportedly died in the crash. In
September 1988, JCRC received another report from another source
describing a wartime F-105 crash near Nong Het. The pilot
reportedly bailed out at low altitude and died when he hit the
ground. The body was buried by local villagers accompanied by
Vietnamese advisory personnel. These reports were placed in Major
Carlock's file due to the correlation to his loss location and the
possibility they may have correlated to his loss incident.
In October 1990, JCRC received another report from another source
describing the October 1967 shoot down of a U.S. aircraft near Nong
Het. The pilot bailed out and the source was told the pilot was
captured by North Vietnamese Army forces. Due to a number of U.S.
aircraft losses in the area of this reported shoot down, some of
which involved unaccounted for airmen, no specific correlation
could be made to a particular missing airman and the report was
placed in the files of airmen unaccounted for in the None Het area.
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