Name: Frank Alton Armstrong III

Rank/Branch: O4/US Air Force 

Unit: 1st Air Commando Squadron                                        

Date of Birth: 07 March 1930

Home City of Record: Shreveport LA

Date of Loss: 06 October 1967

Country of Loss: Laos Loss

Coordinates: 143757N 1072758E

Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered

Category: 2

Acft/Vehicle/Ground: A1E

Refno: 0852

Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project  15 March 1991 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: The Douglas A1 Skyraider ("Spad") is a highly maneuverable, propeller driven aircraft designed as a multipurpose attack bomber or utility aircraft. The E model generally carried two crewmen. The A1 was first used by the Air Force in its Tactical Air Command to equip the first Air Commando Group engaged in counterinsurgency operations in South Vietnam, and later used in a variety of roles, ranging from multi-seat electronic intelligence gathering to Navy antisubmarine warfare and rescue missions. The venerable fighter aircraft was retired in the spring of 1968 and had flown in more than twenty model variations, probably more than any other U.S. combat aircraft.

Maj. Frank A. Armstrong III was the pilot of an A1E which was on an ordnance delivery mission on October 6, 1967. Armstrong's was the lead aircraft in a flight of two A1Es from the 1st Air Commando Squadron based at Pleiku, South Vietnam.

Armstrong's aircraft was struck by hostile ground fire as the flight was in Attopeu Province, Laos, near the tri-border area of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. According to other flight members, Maj. Armstrong did not have time to parachute out of the aircraft as it crashed to the ground in an inverted position.

Frank A. Armstrong is listed among the missing because his remains were never found to send home to the country he served. He died a tragically ironic death in the midst of war. But, for his family, the case seems clear that he died on that day. The fact that they have no body to bury with honor is not of great significance.

For other who are missing, however, the evidence leads not to death, but to survival. Since the war ended, over 10,000 reports received relating to Americans still unaccounted for in Indochina have convinced experts that hundreds of men are still alive, waiting for their country to rescue them. The notion that Americans are dying without hope in the hands of a long-ago enemy belies the idea that we left Vietnam with honor. It also signals that tens of thousands of lost lives were a frivolous waste of our best men.

All Biographical and loss information on POW's provided by Operation Just Cause have been supplied by Chuck and Mary Schantag of POWNET. Please check with POWNET regularly for updates.

Frank Alton Armstrong III

A true American Hero, and there are many more like him.

Recognize this piece of jewelry?

You won't see it in a window at Tiffany's. It's made of inexpensive materials and the engraving wasn't done by some European Master engraver. The cost? A few dollars. The price??? Ask someone who's paid it. Someone like Warrant Officer Frank Anton or Major Mark Smith (USASF Ret.) or Admiral James Stockdale (USN Ret.). Although these true American Heroes survived the torture and have returned home, others like Maj Joseph McDonald (USMC), Major Donald "Butch" Carr (USASF) , Major John McDonnell (USA) and Sergeant First Class Daniel Phillips (USASF) remain unaccounted for more than 25 years after the war's end.

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