27 Apr 2005 The U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1963 honors Don MacLaughlin and the other twelve fallen classmates on the Wall at its website . Please visit "Last Call". From a friend and classmate at USNA, Stephen Coester USNA63 Webmaster scoester@cfl.rr.com

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall After President Johnson directed a halt in the bombing campaign against North Vietnam, the carrier forces were used to augment fixed wing operations in South Vietnam. On 02 Jan 1966 USS ENTERPRISE launched a number of missions in support of Allied forces south of the DMZ. One two-plane mission, with LTJG MacLaughlin flying wing in A-4C BuNo 147704, was directed against a storage site near Duc Pho, Quang Ngai Province. The weather was poor with low cloud and fog, but the flight lead was able to acquire and make a low pass over the target. MacLaughlin was cleared in hot but advised that he had lost sight of the target. Flight lead directed him to climb up through the clouds and remain in visual conditions, but radio contact with MacLaughlin was lost shortly thereafter. The wreckage of MacLaughlin's A-4 was later found on a nearby mountainside, but efforts to recover MacLaughlin's body (which was sighted from a helicopter) were unsuccessful due to enemy presence.

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