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ECKLUND, ARTHUR GENE
Name: Arthur Gene Ecklund
Rank/Branch: O2/US Army
Unit: 183rd Aviation Company, 223rd Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group,
1st Aviation Brigade
Date of Birth: 05 May 1943 (Galesburg IL)
Home City of Record: Phoenix AZ
Date of Loss: 03 April 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 115111N 1085848E (BP750005)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: O1G
Refno: 1422
Other Personnel in Incident: Perry H. Jefferson (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 July 1990 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 1998.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: Arthur Gene Ecklund was born in Galesburg, Illinois and lived
there until he was ten years old when his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona.
He graduated from Central High School there and attended Phoenix College and
Arizona State University.
Artie entered the Army in September 1966 and took his basic training at Ft.
Bliss, Texas. He was chosen for Officers Candidate School and was
commissioned at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. He took helicopter training, then
attended fixed wing pilot training, and was deployed to Vietnam shortly
after.
On April 3, 1969, U.S. Army 1Lt. Arthur G. Ecklund and his U.S. Air Force
observer, Capt. Perry H. Jefferson, were flying a visual reconnaissance
mission out of Phan Rang airbase. They left the base at 0700 hours in an O1G
aircraft (serial #51-12078) and reported in by radio at 0730 hours giving
their location, destination and information concerning a convoy they were
going to check out. No further communication was heard, except for a signal
"beeper".
Extensive search efforts began at 0950 hours with all available aircraft,
and continued for three days without success. The aircraft is believed to
have occurred in an area occupied by enemy forces, thus preventing a ground
search.
On April 15, 1969, a Vietnamese source reported that he had been in contact
with a communist Montagnard who claimed the Viet Cong had shot down an
aircraft with two Americans in it, and the Americans had been wounded, but
were alive, and being held in captivity. He said the aircraft was shot down
between Phan Rang and Cam Ranh City. A later report indicated that two men
fitting the description of Ecklund and Jefferson were seen on a trail being
guarded by Viet Cong, and that they appeared to be in good health.
The U.S. Defense Department list Jefferson's loss coordinates near the
coastline of Vietnam, about 20 miles south of Cam Ranh, while Ecklund's loss
coordinates are listed about 10 miles southwest of Cam Ranh and about 15
miles northwest of those of Jefferson. Both men are listed as lost in Ninh
Thuan Province, South Vietnam.
The presence of the reports of captivity and the emergency radio "beeper"
lends weight to the fact that the two men were captured. There can be no
question that the Vietnamese know the fate of two men. As reports concerning
Americans still alive in Southeast Asia continue to flow in, it becomes
increasingly more important to find out what happened to the men we left
behind.
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