This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Shaun Thomas (Underdog), OSC
to remember
Karger, Barry Edwin, LTJG.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Prather
Last Address Prather
Casualty Date May 14, 1968
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Land
Location Vietnam, North (Vietnam)
Conflict Vietnam War
Location of Interment National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona (VA) - Phoenix, Arizona
Wall/Plot Coordinates Section 43, Site 1188
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
VA-93 Squadron Photo, January 1968, San Diego. Arrow points to LTJG Karger. "On May 14, 1968, Lieutenant Barry Karger was assigned a strike mission over Quang Binh province, North Vietnam in A-4F Skyhawk BuNo. 154198, side number NF 304. During this mission something terrible went wrong and Lieutenant Karger did not return to Bon Homme Richard."
From top to bottom CDR Bob Wilson, LTJG Sam Schneider, LCDR Mike Trout, and LTJG Barry Karger. Photo from the 1968 cruise book.
Comments/Citation:
On January 3, 1994, Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JTF-FA) identified the remains of Lieutenant Junior Grade Barry Edwin Karger, missing from the Vietnam War.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Karger entered the U.S.Navy from California and was a member of Attack Squadron 93, Carrier Air Wing 5. On May 14, 1968, he piloted an A-4F Skyhawk (bureau number 154198, call sign "Raven 304") that launched from the USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) on a strike mission over enemy targets in Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. During the mission, the aircraft was shot down by enemy fire and crashed in the Cau Rang River. LTJG Karger was killed in the crash and his remains could not be recovered at the time due to enemy presence in the area. In 1993, the Vietnamese government repatriated human remains to the U.S. that were eventually identified as those of LTJG Karger.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Karger is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Vietnam Wall Panel coords 60E 013
VA-93, CVW-5, USS BON HOMME RICHARD
USS Bon Homme Richard (CV/A-31), the second United States Navy ship of that name, was named in honor of John Paul Jones' famous frigate, usually rendered in more correct French as Bonhomme Richard, to honor Benjamin Franklin, the American Commissioner at Paris whose almanac, Poor Richard's Almanac had been published in France under the title Les Maximes du Bonhomme Richard. As her sister Essex-class ship the Franklin was also named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, he was therefore the only person ever to have two commissioned US Navy warships named in his honor at the same time.
Tributes from Members
A GREAT HERO posted by Sylvester, Louis (Eddie), BM310
Vietnam War/Tet Counteroffensive Campaign (68)/ Yankee Station, North Vietnam
From Month/Year
January / 1968
To Month/Year
April / 1968
Description Yankee Station was a point in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam used by the U.S. Navy aircraft carriers of Task Force 77 to launch strikes in the Vietnam War. While its official designation was "Point Yankee," it was universally referred to as Yankee Station. Carriers conducting air operations at Yankee Station were said to be "on the line" and statistical summaries were based on days on the line.
The name derived from it being the geographic reference point "Y", pronounced "Yankee" in the NATO phonetic alphabet. In turn the term Point Yankee derived from the launch point for "Yankee Team" aerial reconnaissance missions over Laos conducted in 1964. It was located about 190 km due east of Dong Hoi, at 17° 30' N and 108° 30' E.
During the two periods of sustained air operations against North Vietnam (March 2, 1965-October 31, 1968 and March 30, 1972-December 29, 1972) there were normally three carriers on the line, each conducting air operations for twelve hours, then off for twelve hours. One of the carriers would operate from noon to midnight, another from midnight to noon, and one during daylight hours, which gave 24-hour coverage plus additional effort during daylight hours, when sorties were most effective. However at the end of May, 1972, six carriers were for a short period of time on the line at Yankee Station conducting Linebacker strikes.
The first aircraft carrier at Yankee Station was USS Kitty Hawk, which was ordered there in April 1964 for the Yankee Team missions. Kitty Hawk was joined by Ticonderoga in May and Constellation in June, two months prior to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Ticonderoga and Constellation launched the first bombing missions from Yankee Station on August 5, 1964. Constellation was also the last carrier conducting operations at Yankee Station on August 15, 1973. USS Forrestal suffered a major accident while at Yankee Station when a series of fires and explosions on her deck killed 134 men and injured another 161.
A corresponding Dixie Station in the South China Sea off the Mekong Delta was a single carrier point for conducting strikes within South Vietnam from May 15, 1965 to August 3, 1966.
