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John C. G. Kerr |
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Name: John Creighton Gille KerrRank/Branch: O3/US Air ForceUnit: (unknown, per USAF)Date of Birth: 16 March 1932Home City of Record: Miami FLDate of Loss: 22 August 1967Country of Loss: LaosLoss Coordinates: 193830N 1033345E (UG490720)Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not RecoveredCategory: 2Aircrat: A26ARefno: 0802Marital Status: Married Other Personnel in Incident: Burke H. Morgan (missing) Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 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: The Douglas A26 was a twin-engine attack bomber with World War II service. In Vietnam, it served the French in the 1950's and also the U.S. in the early years of American involvement in Southeast Asia. In 1966, eight A-26's were deployed to Nakhon Phanom to perform hunter-killer missions against truck convoys in southern Laos. Maj. John C.G. Kerr was the pilot and Capt. Burke H. Morgan the navigator of an A26A aircraft assigned a mission over the Plain of Jars region of Laos on August 22, 1967. The Plain of Jars had long been controlled by the communist Pathet Lao and a continual effort had been made by the secret CIA-directed force of some 30,000 indigenous tribesmen to strengthen anti-communist strongholds there. The U.S. committed millions of dollars to the secret war in Laos. Details of this secret operation were not released until August 1971. During the mission radar and radio contact was lost with Kerr and Morgan,and they were declared missing at the time of estimated fuel exhaustion.About four years later, unspecified evidence was received by the Departmentof the Air Force that both men died at the time of the incident. They wereat that time declared Killed in Action.
Burke H. Morgan was promoted to the rank of Major during the period he was maintained missing. |