CRAIN, CARROLL OWEN JR.

Name: Carrol Owen Crain, Jr.
Rank/Branch: O4/US Navy
Unit: Heavy Attack Squadron 4, USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63)
Date of Birth: 13 May 1933
Home City of Record: Memphis TN
Date of Loss: 08 March 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 175500N 1064000E (XE818816)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A3B
Other Personnel in Incident: Ronald E. Galvin, George F. Pawlish (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project with the assistance of one or more
of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
Date Compiled: 15 March 1990

REMARKS: RADIO CONTACT LOST

SYNOPSIS: LCdr. Carrol O. Crain, pilot; LtJG George F. Pawlish, co-pilot; and
AT Ronald E. Galvin, aviation electronics technician; comprised the crew of an
A3B "Skywarrior" aircraft on board the USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) off the coast of
Vietnam in 1967. The three were assigned to Heavy Attack Squadron 4.

On March 8, 1967 Crain's aircraft launched from the Kitty Hawk on a strike
mission into North Vietnam. Shortly after launch, they were notified to delay
their time over the target by ten minutes due to a delay in the launching of the
support aircraft. This was the last contact with them. No distress signals were
received and all efforts to locate or make contact with them were unsuccessful.
Their last known location was about 15 miles off the coast of North Vietnam, due
east of the city of Ron.

All three men were listed Missing In Action, and were not declared dead until
seven years later, at which time their deaths were accounted as hostile deaths
occurring while the men were missing, indicating that enemy action was involved,
not merely in a watery grave. Despite these determinations, the Navy judged that
the aircraft flew or fell into the water prior to departing their over-water
holding point. A naval casualty board determined that their bodies could not be
recovered.

Although returned U.S. prisoners in 1973 were unable to show that either he or
his crewmen were ever in the prison system, in the absence of proof otherwise,
it is possible to entertain the notion that the three, if they managed to escape
the sinking aircraft, could have been picked up by Vietnamese boats who happened
to be in the coastal area.

Certainly, the possibility also exists that Crain, Pawlish and Galvin died the
day their aircraft went down. They are among nearly 2500 Americans still
missing, prisoner or unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.

Unfortunately, nearly 10,000 reports have convinced many authorities that there
are hundreds of Americans still alive and in captivity in Southeast Asia.
Whether the crew of the A3 is among them is uncertain, but one cannot question
that it is long past time to bring our men home.