Name: Joseph Edwin Davies
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 08 April 1940
Home City of Record: Alexandria VA
Date of Loss: 19 May 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 174200N 1062800E
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4D
Other Personnel
In Incident: Glen D. McCubbin
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS:
Joe Davies and Glenn McCubbin comprised the crew of an F4D Phantom
fighter jet sent on a night mission over North Vietnam. When they failed to
rejoin their wingman, another flight in the area was called in to make an
electronic search. Official location, according to coordinates given, places
their last known location near the city of Ron in North Vietnam.
Voice radio contact was established in a location that could not be exactly established, but the families were told the radio transmission was originating from across the border into Laos, some 50 miles from the city of Ron. The voice could not be identified, but when search and rescue was called in, a second transmission was received from about 30 miles southwest (deeper into Laos) of the first contact.
Davies and McCubbin were never found. Their radio transmissions proved futile. One can only imagine the loneliness and frustration they must have felt when their would-be rescuers could not bring them to safety.
If, as the situation indicates, the two were lost inside Laos, it is then possible that they were captured by the Pathet Lao, the communist element of government of that country. They would be among nearly 600 Americans lost there despite the protestations of the U.S. Government that we were not at war in Laos. Even though the Pathet Lao stated on several occasions they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, their freedom was never negotiated for, and not one man held in Laos was ever released.
Should Davies and McCubbin be among the hundreds many experts believe are still alive as captives, what must they be thinking of us?
