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Shareware Supreme Volume 6 #1
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009
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F042.ZIP
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F042.TXT
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1990-02-10
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FULLERTON, FRANK EUGENE
Name: Frank Eugene Fullerton
Rank/Branch: O4/US Navy
Unit: Attack Squadron 93, USS BON HOMME RICHARD (CVA-31)
Date of Birth: 02 January 1934 (Riverdale GA)
Home City of Record: Jonesboro GA
Date of Loss: 27 July 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 183200N 1054800E (WE970994)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A4F
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project with the assistance of Task Force
Omega from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency
sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
Date Compiled: 01 January 1990
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: Capt. Frank E. Fullerton was a pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 93
onboard the aircraft carrier USS BON HOMME RICHARD (CVA-31). On July 27, 1968,
he launched in his A4F "Skyhawk" attack aircraft as the flight leader of a
two-plane section on a night road reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam.
As the flight crossed the coastline, Capt. Fullerton had his wingman placed in
a one to two0mile trail position 2000 feet above him. Three to four minutes
after crossing the coastline, Capt. Fullerton spotted a series of lights on the
ground and assessed them to be trucks. He then called to his wingman saying
that he was going to make a bomb run. The wingman saw two bombs detonate and
then observed an orange-red fire ball close to the bomb hits, which he presumed
was a secondary explosion. The second explosion threw flaming debris high in
the air.
The wingman made his bomb run and made his first radio call to form-up on Capt.
Fullerton. There was no contact returned by Capt. Fullerton, and the air
controller aircraft in the area was contact to aid in making contact. Although
an IFF radio mode III squawk was heard, the radar return faded at 20 miles
before a positive identification could be made, and no confirmed contact was
ever made with Capt. Fullerton, and he was declared Missing in Action.
Upon review of the information available, it was considered that Capt.
Fullerton either misjudged his bombing run altitude and impacted the ground
after his bomb release (in which case he probably went down with the aircraft),
or the IFF squawk was made by Capt. Fullerton. No solid information was ever
received to determine exactly what happened to Capt. Frank E. Fullerton.
Fullerton was not among the prisoners of war that were released in 1973. High
ranking U.S. officials admit their dismay that "hundreds" of suspected American
prisoners of war did not return.
Alarmingly, evidence continues to mount that Americans were left as prisoners
in Southeast Asia and continue to be held today. Unlike "MIAs" from other wars,
most of the nearly 2500 men and women who remain missing in Southeast Asia can
be accounted for. Fullerton could be one of them. Isn't it time we brought our
men home?