Name: Charles Douglas "Doug" King
Rank/Branch: E4/US Air Force
Unit: 40th Air Rescue & Recovery Squadron, NKP TH
Date of Birth: 29 March 1946
Home City of Record: Muscatine IA
Date of Loss: 24 December 1968
Country of Loss: Laos Loss Coordinates: 170600N 1055600E (WD980925)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: HH3E
Other Personnel In Incident: Charles R. Brownlee (missing from F105D)

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. Copyright 1991 Homecoming II Project.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: On Christmas Eve, 1968, Major Charles R. Brownlee's F105D aircraft was shot down over Laos between the city of Ban Phaphilang and the Ban Karai Pass. Brownlee successfully ejected from his plane and landed safely on the ground.

On Christmas Day, Doug King volunteered to be aboard an HH3E helicopter leaving Nakhon Phenom Air Base to rescue Major Brownlee. The helicopter located the pilot, believed to be dead by then, and King was lowered 100 feet into the jungle to the ground. Once on the ground, King freed Brownlee from his parachute, secured him to the rescue device and dragged him to a point near the hovering helicopter.

Suddenly enemy soldiers closed in and began firing. King radioed that he was under fire and for the helicopter to pull away. Brownlee was secured to the hoist cable, but King had not yet secured himself to the cable. When the helicopter pulled away, the hoist line snagged in a tree and broke, dropping King and Brownlee about 10 feet to the ground.

No news surfaced about King or Brownlee until February 1986, when a Lao refugee came to the United States and reported that he had witnessed King's capture, and watched as he was taken away in a truck. The refugee's story matched most details of King's loss incident. Less clear were the details of Brownlee's fate.

When the last American troops left Southeast Asia in 1975, some 2500 Americans were unaccounted for. Over 10,000 reports, such as that of the Lao refugee, received by the U.S.Government since 1975 build a strong case for belief that hundreds of these "unaccounted for" Americans are still alive and in captivity.

"Unaccounted for" is a term that should apply to numbers, not men. Nearly 600 men were left behind in Laos, and our government did not negotiate their release. We, as a nation, have a moral and legal obligation to do everything we can to find these men and bring them home. Until we do, there can be no "peace with honor" from the Vietnam war.

During the period they were maintained Missing in Action, Charles R. Brownlee was promoted to the rank of Colonel, and Charles D. King to the rank of Chief Master Sergeant.

    Christmas was more than a holiday to Sherry King of Muscatine. It was 30 years ago on Christmas Day that her brother, Doug, was presumably killed in Laos while attempting to rescue a downed Air Force pilot.
    Doug King is one of nearly 40 servicemen from Iowa still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. "I always think about this more around the holidays," King said.
    On Christmas Day 1968, King volunteered for what officials say was his final mission. But it wasn't until 1993 that King realized she would never see her brother again.
    That's when US officials were allowed into the Central Army Museum in Hanoi, where personal items from American casualties were kept. They found an identification card with Doug's name, rank, service number and date of birth and an envelope with a card inside containing the same information, plus Vietnamese writing that indicated when he had been killed.
    "In some respects, it gives me closure," King said. "If you can believe the information we got, he probably wasn't a prisoner of war." Doug King was a student at Iowa State University in 1966 when he enlisted in the Air Force. He was 24 when he disappeared. Besides the Air Force Cross, King was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal and Purple Heart.
    "He was in a fraternity at Iowa State," his sister said. "He was kind of a fun-loving person who enjoyed life and was liked by everyone. He was one of the good guys."
    King said she is searching to discover how the card and the information made its way to the museum. About eight years ago, she said, a Vietnamese immigrant recounted to authorities an event that King believes was the last moments of her brother's life. "He said a pilot was pulling up another pilot to the helicopter when the cable broke," King said. "He gave the location and time and everything. "
    She has placed a wreath at the All War Memorial at the Muscatine Courthouse Square. "In some ways, it hasn't ended for us," she said. "We are still looking for a full account. We know someone, somewhere, has a full account of where he was buried."