Dan Heller 
Name: Charles Douglas King
Memorials: Find a Grave 1 2 Vietnam Wall Wall of Faces
Rank/Branch: CMS/USAF
Unit: 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron Udorn Airfield Thailand
Date of Birth: 29 March 1946
Home of Record: Muscatine IA
Date of Loss: 24 December 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 170600N 1055600E (WD980925)
Status in 1973: Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: HH-3E “Jolly Green Giant” (tail number unknown)
Other Personnel In Incident: Major Charles Richard Brownlee USAF F-105D “Thunderchief” “Sweet Thirza May” Serial No. 62-4234
REMARKS: BROWNLEE KIA/BNR
On December 24, 1968, Major Brownlee was the pilot of an F-105D, one in a flight of four on a strike mission near the Mu Gia Pass between Khammouane Province and North Vietnam. His aircraft was hit by hostile fire during a strike on a truck and Major Brownlee reported “fire and smoke in cockpit…bad” followed by a garbled transmission. The SAR force described seeing “junk in the air” when Major Brownlee’s aircraft apparently suffered an explosion at about the time he ejected from his aircraft. His parachute landed in trees within 200 meters of his aircraft’s crash site in double canopy dense jungle and aircraft on the scene began receiving hostile ground fire. There was no radio contact with or beeper from Major Brownlee after his ejection.
On the morning of 25 December, rotor wash from a SAR helicopter attempting to recover Major Brownlee from the trees caused his parachute to dislodge and fall 70 feet to the ground. Paramedic Airman First Class King was lowered from a SAR helicopter and he reported back he’d found the pilot inert in the parachute. Airman King cut the pilot loose from his parachute harness and hooked his body to a cable which was intended to drag him through brush and under a fallen tree for a distance of over 20 feet to reach an open area from which to lift Major Brownlee’s body from the crash site. With the body of Major Brownlee ready to be hoisted from the ground, Airman King reported receiving enemy fire, then radioed he had been hit by hostile fire and directed the SAR helicopter to pull up with enemy forces within 30 feet of him. While being hoisted up, the penetrator cable and hoist broke loose and Airman King and Major Brownlee fell ten feet to the ground below as the SAR aircraft was receiving hostile automatic weapons fire from the ground below. There was a two second emergency beeper ten minutes later but its precise location could not be fixed. Further efforts to locate both individuals were not successful.
On 24 December a Vietnam People’s Army unit radioed it had shot down an aircraft and the pilot had bailed out. Ground forces later reported seeing the pilot bailing out of a reconnaissance aircraft. In another report, a People’s Army unit described a rescue attempt on December 25th in which a helicopter with someone on a ladder was also shot down and there was a report that an attempt would be made to capture the pilot with no indication if he’d been captured. These reports, associated with Khammouane Province, were placed in the MIAs files. Subsequently, a Lao refugee who immigrated to the west reported that King had been captured, put on a truck, and driven away.
If Charles King died he has a right to have his remains returned to his family, friends and country. However, if he survived his fate, like that of other Americans who remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, could be quite different.
Since the end of the Vietnam War well over 21,000 reports of American prisoners, missing and otherwise unaccounted for have been received by our government. Many of these reports document LIVE American Prisoners of War remaining captive throughout Southeast Asia TODAY. Airmen in Vietnam were called upon to fly in many dangerous circumstances, and they were prepared to be wounded, killed or captured. It probably never occurred to them that they could be abandoned by the country they so proudly served.
