Shareware Supreme Volume 6 #1/swsii.zip/swsii/009/B377.ZIP/B377

Text File | 1990-04-18 | 4KB | 80 lines

BENSON, LEE DAVID

Name: Lee David Benson
Rank/Branch: O2/US Navy
Unit: Air Antisubmarine Squadron 23, USS Yorktown
Date of Birth: 17 August 1943
Home City of Record: San Mateo CA
Date of Loss: 17 March 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 191759N 1062269E (XG453344)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: S2E
Other Personnel in Incident: Thomas D. Barber; Donald R. Hubbs; Randall J.
Nightingale (all 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: LOST O/W - SEARCH FAILED - J

SYNOPSIS: Cdr. Donald R. Hubbs (pilot); LtJg. Lee D. Benson (co-pilot); AX2
Randall J. Nightingale (Antisubmarine Warfare Technician 2nd Class); and ADR
Thomas D. Barber (crewman) comprised the crew of an S2E aircraft assigned to Air
Antisubmarine Squadron 23 aboard the USS YORKTOWN.

As submarine action in Vietnam was virtually (if not completely) unknown, a wide
variety of activities were conducted by Anti-submarine units in Vietnam. Because
Anti-submarine warfare involves the use of magnetic detection gear or acoustic
buoys in conjunction with "listening" devices, anti-submarine aircraft and their
crews' training proved especially adaptable to reconnaissance and tracking
missions.

On March 17, 1968, Hubbs and his crew launched from the YORKTOWN on a
surveillance mission over the Gulf of Tonkin. Approximately one hour after
launch, the aircraft reported radar problems. No other transmissions were heard,
and the aircraft disappeared from the ship's radar scope. All efforts to make
contact were unsuccessful. The last point of contact occurred about 30 miles off
the shore of North Vietnam about 25 miles east southeast of the island of Hon
Me.

On July 2O, 1968 a section of the starboard wing was found. During the period of
July through September 1973 an overwater/at-sea casualty resolution operation
was conducted to determine the feasibility and desirability of such water loses.
These operations were terminated when it was determined to be unfeasible and
nonproductive in such cases. Commander Hubbs and the rest of his crew are still
carried in the status of Presumed Dead/Remains nonrecoverable.

When considering a personnel loss at sea, the criteria for survival involves
both the location and the cause of the loss. In the case of the S2E, no reason
for loss was ever determined. Therefore, it was either shot down or went down
due to mechanical difficulties.

If mechanical difficulties resulted in the downing of the S2E, in an entirely
non-hostile environment, then there can be little chance of survival for the
crew of the S2E unless they managed to cross 25 miles of ocean. If enemy
activity was present, however, there can be ample room for speculation that the
crew might have been captured.

The crew of the S2E is among nearly 3000 Americans who remained prisoner,
missing, or otherwise unaccounted for at the end of the Vietnam war. Since that
time, cases have been resolved by the return of remains and by other means.
Since the end of the war, nearly 10,000 reports relating to these Americans
have been received by the U.S. Government, convincing many authorities that
hundreds of Americans remain alive in enemy hands today.

Whether the crew of the S2E survived to be captured can only be speculated. It
would be kinder to them and to their families if they died on March 17, 1968.
It is impossible to imagine the agony they must feel to have been abandoned by
their country. It is heartbreaking to consider that Americans still await
rescue by the country they proudly served.