OSBORNE, DALE HARRISON
Name:Dale Harrison Osborne
Rank/Branch: United States Navy/O4
Unit: VA 55 CVA 19
Date of Birth: 23 January 1933 Salt Lake City UT
Home City of Record: Salt Lake City UT
Date of Loss: 23 September 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 185400 North 1053600 East (Nghe An 25 Miles NW of Vinh)
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A4F
Missions:
Korean Conflict - member of the USAF 191st Fighter Bomber Squadron
stationed at Clovis AFB, New Mexico - 1951-1954.
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno: 1285
Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS: 730212 RELEASED BY DRV
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977
Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor
P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602
Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and
spelling errors).
DALE H. OSBORNE
Commander - United States Navy
Shot Down: September 23, 1968
Released: February 12, 1973
My place of birth is Salt Lake City, Utah, where I was born on 23 January
1933 to my parents, Vivian C. and David E. Osborne. My oldest brother,
Leonard, was shot down over Belgium during World War II. He was listed as
MIA for two years until his status was changed to KIA after the war. Two
other older brothers, Paul and David, reside with their families in
California. My father is now deceased and my mother lives in Los Angeles,
California. My two daughters, Christina and Cheri, and my one son, David,
now reside in San Diego, California.
During the Korean War, I was a member of the USAF 191st Fighter Bomber
Squadron stationed at Clovis AFB, New Mexico.
I graduated from the University of Utah in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science
degree from the School of Business (Banking and Finance). I was a member of
Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.
On 1 October 1956 I entered the United States Navy as an Air Officer
Candidate and reported to Pensacola, Florida for pre-flight training. I
received my commission on 1 February 1957 and was designated a Naval Aviator
on 4 June 1958.
From 1958 to 1961 I served with Patrol Squadron Nine (VP 9) stationed at
Alameda, California and Kodiak, Alaska. I was Patrol Plane Commander of
P2V-7 type aircraft involved with Anti-Submarine warfare tactics. From 1961
to 1964, I was assigned to Training Squadron Three (VT-3), NAAS Whiting
Field, Milton, Florida, as a radio instrument flight instructor in T-28 type
aircraft. In 1965 I reported to Air Anti Submarine Squadron Twenty-One
(VS-21) at NAS North Island, San Diego, California and was a Carrier Air
Plane Commander of S2E type aircraft involved with anti-submarine warfare.
My squadron deployed to WESTPAC in 1966, embarked in the USS Kearsarge
(CVS-33), conducting air operations in the Gulf of Tonkin in support of the
U.S. war effort in Southeast Asia.
The Naval Air Station at Lemoore, California was my next stop in 1967 where
I reported for transition and training in the A4F Sky Hawk aircraft. In
December of that year I was ordered to Attack Squadron Fifty-Five (VA-55).
The squadron deployed to WESTPAC in July 1968, embarked in the USS Hancock
(CVA 19), joining yankee team operations in the Gulf of Tonkin conducting
air strikes against North Vietnam.
On 23 September 1968 my aircraft was hit by Anti-aircraft artillary
immediately following a rocket attack on enemy positions near the city of
Vinh, North Vietnam. Shells exploded in the cockpit area which knocked me
unconscious and caused severe injuries to my left leg, right hand and wrist.
I regained consciousness momentarily enabling me to pull the ejection handle
before passing out again. When I next regained consciousness, I was on the
ground - my left wrist had been broken during ejection or ground contact. I
was captured immediately by a group of approximately 15 Vietnamese. After an
extremely torturous trip North, I finally arrived in Hanoi on the 10th of
October. I was completely desiccated, emaciated, and in a moribund state. I
was incarcerated with Cdr. Brian Woods and I credit him with saving my life.
I was confined in several prison camps in the Hanoi area during my 4 1/2
years of captivity. I was listed as MIA for over a year. I was released to
the American authorities at Gia Lam Airport, Hanoi, Vietnam on 12 February
1973.
December 1996
Dale Osborne retired from the United States Navy as a Commander. He and his
wife Nancy reside in Utah.
-----------------------------
The Salt Lake Tribune -- Utah
by Jon Ure
07/04/98
Memento reminds pilot of war ordeal
With his left hand, former combat pilot Dale Osborne hoists the strange
piece of metal and balances it with his battle-scarred right hand.
It's a 10-inch brass tube, crudely fluted at one end, and weighs about 3
pounds.
"They tried to make a vase out of it," says Osborne. "It's an ugly thing,"
adds his wife, Nancy.
The odd object is a shell casing from an anti-aircraft gun. But this is no
ordinary ordnance. It's the remnant of the 57mm shell that brought down
Osborne's A-4 warplane over North Vietnam nearly 30 years ago. Its
existence provides the 65-year-old Salt Lake City resident a rare
distinction among wartime fliers: He actually owns the bullet that had his
name on it.
It also is a reminder of the shell from hell -- the bomb that nearly
killed him in midair and landed him in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton"
prisoner of war camp.
"Initially, I thought I would like to take a sledge hammer to it," says
Osborne. "It changed my life."
The former Navy commander, a graduate of East High and the University of
Utah, learned of the shell casing May 27. That's when fellow POW Mike
McGrath sent Osborne an e-mail informing him the Pentagon was searching
for the Utahn. Defense Department officials had told McGrath, head of the
group Vietnam Prisoners of War, about the amazing find.
"Polish government officials recently gave our Cold War specialists
working in Poland a memento that our guys would like to pass to Commander
Dale Osborne -- if you think he will be interested," McGrath's e-mail
quoted the Defense Department as saying. "The memento is a AAA shell
casing, which has the following inscription [in Vietnamese]:
23-9-68
'Shell that shot down an A4 on the spot
A gift from the Nghe An Province [Air Defense] Group'
"Dale is the only person who went down on that date in Nghe An Province,"
the e-mail points out.
The casing surfaced earlier this year in a rental property vacated by
Vietnamese nationals in a Warsaw suburb. It was handed over to members of
the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs.
At first, Osborne believed news of the casing was a prank. "I thought
someone was pulling a crappy joke." Then, on June 18, Osborne received the
blackened casing. "I still can't believe it," he says. "Of the millions of
tons of ordnance, I wonder where this has been."
In his stylish Salt Lake City penthouse condo, Osborne gazes curiously at
the casing. For a brief moment, he grimaces as if he has bitten into a
rotten apple. He is astounded to be touching this piece of his past that
so abruptly -- and violently -- touched him.
"Finally, the shell and the casing are reunited," he says, pointing to the
small bumps on his arms. Inside these blemishes, just under the skin, lie
the metal fragments from the artillery flak that riddled his aircraft.
Osborne and his wife -- who have been married for 20 years -- have
imagined how the North Vietnamese gunners may have celebrated after
downing Osborne's jet. "I can see some excited little man grabbing that
casing after Dale was hit," Nancy says.
At her prodding, Osborne then tells an understated tale of that day and
four-plus years in captivity that followed.
It all started Sept. 23, 1968, during his second tour of duty in Vietnam.
He launched his A-4 Skyhawk from the aircraft carrier USS Hancock. His
squadron's mission: Bomb military installations about 150 miles south of
Hanoi.
Osborne remembers his missiles screaming toward their target. While
veering his fighter away from ground fire, anti-aircraft flak plastered
his cockpit. His right hand was shattered. His left arm and legs were
peppered with shrapnel and blood was oozing from a head wound. He slipped
in and out of consciousness.
"I nailed them better before they got me but it was a terrible ride. I had
about 50 holes in me ...," he explains. "I remember thinking calmly
that I was close to the ground -- that I was going in. I thought, `I've
got to get out of here,' but my [right] hand wouldn't work. I ejected
using my left hand. I came to and I lay stripped naked on the ground.
Thankfully, the military surrounded me."
Osborne fears civilians would have tortured him to death on the spot.
Instead, he lived for the next 4 1/2 years in a nightmarish purgatory.
He barely escaped death on a seemingly endless march to the "Hanoi
Hilton." Once, he awoke in a hole while enemy soldiers, thinking he was
dead, shoveled dirt on him. The battered airman nearly was left for dead
two more times. And on several occasions he woke up to find rats feeding
on his open wounds.
"It was an ungodly 17-day trip," Osborne recalls. "They would take me from
village to village and kids would hit me with their sticks."
During the ensuing years, he was shipped from the "Hanoi Hilton" to other
POW camps in and around Hanoi, including prisons dubbed the "Plantation"
and "The Zoo."
"It was a zoo," stresses Osborne. "They all were."
In 1969, a fellow POW got caught trying to escape. "They beat him to
death," Osborne explains. "All night I could hear him moaning and groaning
in the next cell." Guards would revive the injured prisoner only to pound
him back to unconsciousness.
"The next morning, the cell was cleaned out," Osborne says. "I don't see
how anybody can do that. Some of the guards were compassionate, though."
There were upbeat moments, too, including when U.S. B-52s would blitz
Hanoi. During the nighttime raids, Osborne says, the POWs would remain
silent whenever their captors were in sight. But as soon as the guards
wandered off, cheers would erupt. The din nearly rivaled the roar of the
exploding bombs -- "a thunder that just does not stop," notes Osborne.
During his first year in captivity, Osborne was listed as missing in
action (MIA). He fretted about how his mother greeted that news. In World
War II, Osborne's eldest brother, Leonard, was shot down over Belgium. He
also was listed MIA for a year -- before his death was confirmed.
"When they finally brought his body home, my mom and dad couldn't handle
it," says Osborne.
Naturally, Osborne wondered if he would get home alive. He wound up being
in the first batch of POWs released.
On Feb. 12, 1973, Osborne boarded a U.S. Air Force C-141 in Hanoi bound
for Clark Air Base in the Philippines. The 6-foot-2 airman weighed 125
pounds.
In all, North Vietnam released nearly 600 American POWs, mostly Navy,
Marine and Air Force fliers. Osborne doubts all the prisoners got out. He
believes some were sent to Russia, others to China.
But the discovery of his "souvenir" shell casing so far from Southeast
Asia is a testament to Osborne that the search for the remains or
whereabouts of unaccounted U.S. military personnel will bear results.
Osborne, who retired in 1975 after 20 years in the Navy, salutes the
Defense Department for its efforts to deliver his memento. "They didn't
need to do that," he says.
The casing is sure to wow civilian friends and veteran buddies, says
Osborne, and maybe it now will bring good luck. "The odds are out of the
window," he says. "I'm thinking of going to Las Vegas. I'll take that
damned thing with me when I pull the handle."
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