CLARK, JERRY PROSPER

Name: Jerry Prosper Clark
Rank/Branch: W1/US Army
Unit: 568th Signal Company, 41st Signal Battalion
Date of Birth: 08 August 1940 (Pine Bluff AR)
Home City of Record: Davenport IA
Loss Date: 15 December 1965
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 133834N 1091351E (CR087088)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: O1D, callsign Cablerunner 26
Refno: 0210
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

REMARKS:

Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S.
Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families,
published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 1999, with
information from F.L. Newton, Wolfhouse 709.

SYNOPSIS: WO Jerry Prosper Clark was an pilot flying a reconnaissance
mission in an O1D aircraft (serial #55-4686). He was returning to Quin Nhon
(his home base) from An Khe. Clark experienced an in-flight emergency. A
classmate, flying over Phan Thiet overheard the call and recognized his
callsign. Clark radioed that he "was on top with a low fuel state and wanted
the Quin Nhon NDB frequency." He stated he thought he could make it home.
Clark switched frequency after getting a "good luck" from Wolfhouse 709, for
further instructions from the Qui Nhon tower.

1Lt. Robert L. Taylor, who was flying a nearby UH1B headed for the Clark's
last known location. When Taylor flew over the beach trying to locate Clark,
he found wreckage of his aircraft in shallow water near the hamlet of Tuy
Phong, about 8 miles south of Qui Nhon. Several aircraft and vessels were
dispatched to locate Clark, but no sign of him was found.

When search teams surveilled the crash site, Jerry's survival gear was not
found and it was thought that he had been taken prisoner by the North
Vietnamese. Stories from villagers differ. In one version Clark left the
aircraft, swam to shore, swam back to the aircraft to get a weapon, returned
to shore and fled into the hills. Another version says that Clark swam
ashore, returned to the aircraft, but was shot by a sniper and fell into the
water as though mortally wounded. No proof of either version has been found,
nor has Jerry P. Clark.

The O1 Bird Dog was used widely by Army, Air Force and Marine Corps forward
air controllers in Southeast Asia. The slower, low-flying craft could locate
and mark targets with accuracy not possible by higher flying jets. Although
it performed a valuable service, the O1 also lacked adequate armor or
self-sealing fuel tanks, its range was short and it carried too few rockets.
It was used widely as late as 1968, whereupon the planes passed into the
hands of Lao and South Vietnamese airmen.

In the years following the fall of Saigon in 1975, refugees have fled
Southeast Asia, bringing with them reports of Americans still alive and in
captivity in their homelands. By 1989, the number of these reports topped
the 8000 mark. A committee charged with investigating Defense Intelligence
Agency, the entity charged with analysis of these reports, concluded that
there was a strong possiblity that Americans were being held against their
will.

The Reagan administration declared for eight years that the resolution of
the POW/MIA issue was one of "highest national priority". President Nixon
said the same thing. These words have no meaning to men like Jerry Clark,
should he be one of the hundreds still thought to be alive.

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