DOTSON, JEFFERSON SCOTT
Name: Jefferson Scott Dotson
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit: 416th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Tuy Hoa Airbase, South Vietnam
Date of Birth: 06 August 1944
Home City of Record: Pound VA
Date of Loss: 09 August 1969
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 161800N 1063900E (XD762026)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F100F
Other Personnel In Incident: Laurent Lee Gourley (missing)
Refno: 1477
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project from one or more of the following:
raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews: 01 January 1990. Updated by the
P.O.W. NETWORK 1999.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: When North Vietnam began to increase their military strength in
South Vietnam, NVA and Viet Cong troops intruded on neutral Laos for
sanctuary, as the Viet Minh had done during the war with the French some
years before. The border road, termed the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" was used for
transporting weapons, supplies and troops. Scores of American pilots were
shot down trying to stop this communist traffic to South Vietnam.
Fortunately, search and rescue teams in Vietnam were extremely successful
and the recovery rate was high. Still, there were nearly 600 who were not
rescued in Laos. Many of them went down along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the
passes through the border mountains between Laos and Vietnam.
In the early morning of August 9, 1969, 1Lt. Jefferson S. Dotson, pilot, and
Capt. Lee Gourley, his rear-seat co-pilot, departed Tuy Hoa Airbase located
on the coast of central South Vietnam on a "Misty" Forward Air Control (FAC)
mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in central Laos.
Lee Gourley had written home early that same day saying that all missions
for that day had been scrubbed due to bad weather. He did not expect to have
to fly that day - and he had time to write his family. Gourley had been
working with Misty for some time as a volunteer. Misty FAC volunteers were
chosen from among the best and most experienced pilots. He had delayed a
trip to Hawaii for R & R until the Misty duties were complete in another
week, knowing his time in the Vietnam arena would be short following his
return. The FAC mission had come up unexpectedly.
The aircraft Dotson and Gourley flew, the F100 Super Sabre, had been
specially modified a few years before to include a second crewman. The F
model, introduced in 1965, had the latest technology in radar signal
detectors. The initial shipment of F100F's were called "Wild Weasel I" and
were an important element in several combat operations.
Gourley and Dotson were not on a Wild Weasel mission, however, and on the
FAC mission this day, no bombs were loaded. They were to fly low and fast
over their objective area and presumably analyze targets for future air
strikes, or assess the potential need for further strikes. FAC
reconnaissance missions in the traditional sense were often flown by light
observation aircraft rather than fighter/bombers, but the necessary element
for this mission was low altitude and high speed, as well as the ability to
cover a large territory.
Although there was normally no scheduled air backup or escort on a FAC
mission, and Gourley and Jefferson had none, other aircraft which happened
to be in the area provide information as to what happened to Dotson and
Gourley as they flew near Sepone in Savannakhet Province, Laos.
One passing aircraft intercepted a radio transmission from the F100F, "We've
been hit, we're going to try to get out." Observers from the passing
aircraft then saw the F100 go up in flames, and observed one fully deployed
parachute. (NOTE: The standard ejection called for the rear-seater, Gourley,
to make the first ejection, then the pilot, and a fully deployed chute
indicated the successful ejection of a crew member.)
Dotson and Gourley were classified Missing in Action. Their families
understood that they might have been captured, and like the families of
others who were missing, wrote regular letters.
Lee Gourley's sister, Elzene, became active in the POW/MIA families' effort
to "watchdog" U.S. Government actions regarding American Prisoners of War
held in Indochina. In early 1973, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger came to
the POW/MIA families and announced that peace agreements were ready to be
signed and their men would soon be home, or accounted for, if they were
dead. Elzene Gourley specifically asked Kissinger about the prisoners in
other countries besides Vietnam - Laos, Cambodia and China - and if his good
news included the men missing there. Kissinger replied, "What do you think
took us so long?"
When 591 American prisoners were released from communist prison camps in
Southeast Asia in the spring of 1973, it became apparent that Kissinger had
lied to the POW/MIA families. Not a single man who had been held in Laos had
been released. Although the Pathet Lao had spoken publicly of American
prisoners they held, and many were known to have survived their loss
incidents, the U.S. had not negotiated the freedom of the American POWs held
in Laos.
In 1974, the Gourleys sent a letter to Lee in care of the Prime Minister of
Laos, who responded that the letter would be conveyed later to their son.
The U.S. State Department said the Prime Minister might not know English and
probably an error was made in translation.
In 1976, the Gourleys wrote to Lee in care of Prince Souvanna Phouma in
Vientiane, Laos. He wrote back that he would give their letter to the
"central committee" to be sent to the "one for whom (it was) intended." The
U.S. State Department ordered the Gourleys to quit writing Lee in care of
the Lao.
Following the war, refugees fled Southeast Asia and brought with them
stories of Americans still held prisoner and other information relating to
Americans missing in their homelands. By 1989, the number of such reports
approaches 10,000, and most authorities reluctantly have concluded that many
Americans must still be alive and held captive.
It is certainly reasonable to speculate that Gourley and Dotson survived to
be captured. Only the communist goverments of Southeast Asia could say if
they are among those hundreds of Americans thought to be still alive, and
they deny any knowledge of Americans missing in their countries.
Lee Gourley and Jefferson Dotson pledged to "keep the faith" with their
country. Have we kept faith with the men who are still fighting an old war
in our names? What would Lee Gourley and Jefferson Dotson say?
Laurent Lee Gourley graduated from the U. S. Air Force Academy in 1966.
Scott Dotson graduated from Virginia Military Institutue in 1966. (The class
lost 11, including Scott in SE Asia.)
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