Shadow box

On 24 October 1967 the Air Force and Navy staged a coordinated attack on Phuc Yen Air Base in North Vietnam, the first attack on the airfield. The Navy contributed carrier-based Combat Air Patrol forces, while the USAF bombers came from bases in Thailand.

Fighter Squadron 151, embarked in USS Coral Sea, was tasked with providing a section of F-4B aircraft positioned over Thud Ridge on the bombers' approach path to Phuc Yen. The section consisted of

F-4B BuNo 150421 flown by CDR Charles R. Gillespie and LTJG Richard C. Champ
F-4B BuNo 150995 flown by LTJG Robert F. Frishman and LTJG Earl G. Lewis

As the bombers were approaching the target the two F-4s were engaged by SA-2 missiles. Gillespie was able to dodge the first SA-2 but was hit by a second. With his aircraft on fire and without hydraulic power or internal communications, Gillespie used hand signals to direct ejection and left the aircraft before it crashed near Tam Dao Mountain. Shortly afterwards, Frishman's aircraft was fatally damaged by two SA-2 hits; Frishman and Lewis both ejected. The two aircraft were hit well inland over a heavily populated area with little hope for rescue. Gillespie was captured almost at once, while Frishman and Lewis were able to evade the North Vietnamese for several hours before being captured. The three men were transported to Hanoi - but there was no word of Clark.

Over the next few days, Hanoi Radio reported that eight US aircraft had been downed on 24 October and that "a number of US pilots" had been captured (see below) but gave no names.

Frishman had been seriously wounded in the arm by missile fragments. A North Vietnamese surgeon eventually removed the elbow joint, shortening the arm by several inches. Frishman then spent the next 18 months in solitary confinement. On 4 July 1969, Frishmann, USAF 1LT Wesley Rumble (389th TFS, shot down 28 Apr 68), and Seaman Douglas Hegdahl (who had fallen overboard from USS Canberra on 6 Apr 67) were interviewed by Italian Journalist Oriana Fallaci for Look Magazine. On 4 August 1969 the three men were released to a peace committee lead by Rennie Davis, a top coordinator for the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.

During their post-release debriefings, the three were able to confirm that Gillespie and Lewis (among others) were POWs, but knew nothing of Clark's status. Never the less, all three of the crewmen - Gillespie, Lewis, and Clark - were reclassified from Missing in Action to Captured. While the North Vietnamese intended the release of the three as a positive propaganda move, it backfired: on 2 September 1969 Frishman and Hegdahl held a press conference at the Bethesda Naval Hospital and publicly denounced the atrocious conditions in the POW camps and the NVA's use of torture.

Following the Paris Peace Accords, Gillespie and Lewis were repatriated. In his debrief, Lewis stated that he saw Clark slumped over in the rear cockpit and watched the aircraft continuously until it hit the ground - and that he did not see Clark eject. None of the released POWs had any knowledge of Clark. On 02 Nov 1973 the Secretary of the Navy approved a Presumptive Finding of Death for Lieutenant Richard C. Clark.

Between September 1988 and December 1990, US/Vietnamese teams repeatedly visited the Tam Dao Mountain area to investigate Clark's loss. An F-4 crash site - probably BuNo 150421 - was located in December 1990, and in Jan. 16, 1991 the Socialist Republic of Vietnam repatriated 11 boxes of remains to the United States which confirmed, after DNA testing, they contained Clark's remains in 2014.

Clark, Richard Champ, LT