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In Memoriam (for war dead we knew personally)


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James Alan Fowler, LT COL USAF. KIA 06/06/72 

http://www.vietnamwarcasualties.org/index.php?page=directory&rec=16884

"Jim" Fowler, then a MAJ, was a hotshot F-4D pilot on the  TOP SECRET/CRYPTO PAVE FIRE III program which Dad ran the technical side of at LTV Electrosystems. He and his WSO, CPT John Wayne Seull, were KIA on 06/06/72 while flying over the Mu Gia Pass on the Vietnam Laos border. This was after PAVE FIRE III ended. Word we got was they were eaten by an SA-2 whose launch they couldn't see because of a cloud layer below. Dad took this pretty hard. Jim was not only a professional colleagues and one of the men who'd flown into the teeth of S-60 fire to kill the batteries after PAVE FIRE III found them (Dad personally certified to the guys it would work), but a gregarious guy who was over to the house with the other pilots and WSOs for barbecues, shrimp fests, oyster grillings (flown in fresh from Florida on ice in a converted fuel tank, half of which was used for personal kit) and more. Wasn't every high schooler who had the cream of the Air Force's fighter crews or got taught the basics of ECM on a chalkboard in the living room!

When he was downed, his WSO, whom I did not know and was never on Dad's project, was

John Wayne Seull, CPT USAF. KIA 06/06/72 

http://www.vietnamwarcasualties.org/index.php?page=directory&rec=46731

Neither body was ever recovered, for the karst mountain area was very heavily bombed later, but nothing in connection with them. Brother Ed has a faint recollection LT COL Fowler's widow ultimately received a twisted and burned dog tag.

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited by John Kettler
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Just as a sidebar, I have just begun reading The Hunter Killers: The Extraordinary Story of the First Wild Weasels, the Band of Maverick Aviators Who Flew the Most Dangerous Missions of the Vietnam War by Dan Hampton. So far it's holding up well and is a very good read.

Michael

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