Name: Stephen William Clark
Rank/Branch: O3/US Marine Corps
Unit: VMFA 234, MAG 11
Date of Birth: 24 September 1943
Home City of Record: Plymouth CA
Date of Loss: 03 May 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 165504N 1070612E (YD240715)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F8E
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 April 1990 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS:
The Vought F8 Crusader saw action early in U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.
It's "fighter" models participated in the first "Gulf of Tonkin" reprisal in August
1964 and in the myriad attacks against North Vietnam during Operation Rolling
Thunder. The Crusader was used exclusively by the.. Navy and Marine Airwings
(although there is - one U.S. Air Force pilot reported shot down on an F8) and
represented half or more of the carrier fighters in the Gulf of Tonkin during the
- first four years - of the war. The aircraft was credited with nearly 53% of MiG
kills in Vietnam.
Between 1964 to 1972, eighty-three Crusaders were either lost or destroyed by
enemy fire. Another 109 required major rebuilding. ~ 145 Crusader pilots were
recovered; 57 were not. ~ 20 of these pilots were captured and later released. The
other 43 remained missing at the end of the war.
Captain. Stephen W. Clark was the pilot of an F8E conducting a combat mission
near the Demilitarized Zone... in South Vietnam on May 3,1968. Clark's aircraft
was hit by hostile ground fire, crashed and burned. Little or no hope of survival
existed for Captain. Clark, and he was listed as... Killed/Body Not Recovered.
Clark is one of nearly "2300" still missing, prisioner, or otherwise unaccounted
for from the Vietnam War.
Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing, held
prisoner or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the United
States Government. Many who have examined this classified info are convinced
that hundreds of Americans are still held captive today.
Fighter pilots were called upon to fly in many dangerous circumstances... and
were prepared to be killed, wounded, or captured. It probably never occurred
to them that they could be abandoned by the country they so proudly served.
To
learn more check out these other sights
OP:JC Yellow Ribbon Campaign
The WALLThe National Alliance of Families
for the return
of Americas Missing servicemen
Special thanks to Doc for most of the graphics on this page
Click on the bracelet
To adopt your own pow/mia
