Name: Paul Vernon "Skip" Jackson III
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 56th Special Operations Wing, Udorn AF TH (RAVENS)
Date of Birth: 03 September 1946
Home City of Record: Hampton VA
Date of Loss: 24 December 1972
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 191950N 1030708E (UG024383)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: O1D
Other Personnel in Incident: Charles F. Riess (released POW)
Source:
Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 with the assistance of
one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS:
The Steve Canyon program was a highly classified FAC (forward air
control) operation covering the military regions of Laos. U.S. military
operations in Laos were severely restricted during the Vietnam War era because
Laos had been declared neutral by the Geneva Accords.
The non-communist forces in Laos, however, had a critical need for military support in order to defend territory used by Lao and North Vietnamese communist forces. The U.S., in conjunction with non-communist forces in Laos, devised a system whereby U.S. military personnel could be "in the black" or "sheep-dipped" (clandestine; mustered out of the military to perform military duties as a civilian) to operate in Laos under supervision of the U.S. Ambassador to Laos.
RAVEN was the radio call sign which identified the flyers of the Steve Canyon Program. Men recruited for the program were rated Air Force officers with at least six months experience in Vietnam. They tended to be the very best of pilots, but by definition, this meant that they were also mavericks, and considered a bit wild by the mainstream military establishment.
The Ravens came under the formal command of CINCPAC and the 7/13th Air Force 56th Special Operations Wing at Nakhon Phanom, but their pay records were maintained at Udorn with Detachment 1. Officially, they were on loan to the U.S. Air Attache at Vientiane. Unofficially, they were sent to outposts like Long Tieng, where their field commanders were the CIA, the Meo (Hmong) Generals, and the U.S. Ambassador. Once on duty, they flew FAC missions which controlled all U.S. air strikes over Laos.
All tactical strike aircraft had to be under the control of a FAC, who was intimately familiar with the locale, the populous, and the tactical situation. The FAC would find the target, order up U.S. fighter/bombers from an airborne command and control center, mark the target accurately with white phosphorus (Willy Pete) rockets, and control the operation throughout the time the planes remained on station. After the fighters had departed, the FAC stayed over the target to make a bomb damage assessment (BDA).
The FAC also had to ensure that there were no attacks on civilians, a complex problem in a war where there were no front lines and any hamlet could suddenly become part of the combat zone. A FAC needed a fighter pilot's mentality, but but was obliged to fly slow and low in such unarmed and vulnerable aircraft as the Cessna O1 Bird Dog, and the Cessna O2. Consequently, aircraft used by the Ravens were continually peppered with ground fire. A strong fabric tape was simply slapped over the bullet holes until the aircraft could no longer fly.
Ravens were hopelessly overworked by the war. The need for secrecy kept their numbers low (never more than 22 at one time), and the critical need of the Meo sometimes demanded each pilot fly 10 and 12 hour days. Some Ravens completed their tour of approximately 6 months with a total of over 500 combat missions.
The Ravens in at Long Tieng in Military Region II, had, for several years, the most difficult area in Laos. The base, just on the southern edge of the Plain of Jars, was also the headquarters for the CIA-funded Meo army commanded by General Vang Pao. An interesting account of this group can be read in Christopher Robbins' book, "The Ravens".
Skip Jackson was a Raven stationed at Long Tieng. On December 24, 1972, he was on station in the Plain of Jars region when his aircraft crashed and he was believed dead. According to "The Ravens," Skip Jackson "had been run over by a Navy jet. He had been directing a set of A-7's over the Plain of Jars when one of the fighters had clipped a strut under the wing of the O01. It plummeted to the ground and pancaked. The pilot of the A-7 remembered a flash, then suddenly his plane became unstable and he punched out--only to be captured and imprisoned by the enemy."
There was only one A7 pilot on the rolls of the missing in Laos on December 24--Charles F. Riess. Although U.S. Government raw data codes this loss in Xiangkhoang Province (the PDJ area), loss coordinates place him some 50 miles north of the PDJ in Louangphrabang Province. Reiss is also an Air Force officer, not a Navy officer. These inconsistancies do not necessarily rule out the possibility that Riess was the A7 pilot involved in the loss of Jackson.
Charles F. Riess was not known to be a Prisoner of War. The U.S. carried him as missing even though he was held in Hanoi with other American POWs. The Vietnamese kept Riess and several others captured by the Vietnamese in Laos completely separate from other American POWs. In the spring of 1973, when 591 Americans were freed, Riess' release came as a complete surprise. Riess had not been held in Laos.
Skip Jackson is one of nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos. Even though the Pathet Lao stated publicly that they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, not one American held in Laos was ever released -- or negotiated for.
Since U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ended, nearly 10,000 reports have been received by the U.S. Government relating to Americans missing in Southeast Asia. Many authorities have reluctantly concluded that hundreds are still alive in captivity today.
Someone knows what happened to Skip Jackson on December 24, 1972. If he died, the enemy was all around him; they probably know where his body lies. If, on the other hand, is is by some chance one of the hundreds thought to be still alive, what must he be thinking of the country he proudly served?
