CRAIN, CARROLL OWEN JR.

Name: Carrol Owen Crain, Jr.
Rank/Branch: O4/US Navy
Unit: Heavy Attack Squadron 4, USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63)
Date of Birth: 13 May 1933
Home City of Record: Memphis TN
Date of Loss: 08 March 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 175500N 1064000E (XE818816)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A3B
Refno: 0610
Other Personnel in Incident: Ronald E. Galvin, George F. Pawlish (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 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: 15
March 1990. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.


REMARKS: RADIO CONTACT LOST

SYNOPSIS: LCdr. Carrol O. Crain, pilot; LtJG George F. Pawlish, co-pilot;
and AT Ronald E. Galvin, aviation electronics technician; comprised the crew
of an A3B "Skywarrior" aircraft on board the USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) off the
coast of Vietnam in 1967. The three were assigned to Heavy Attack Squadron
4.

On March 8, 1967 Crain's aircraft launched from the Kitty Hawk on a strike
mission into North Vietnam. Shortly after launch, they were notified to
delay their time over the target by ten minutes due to a delay in the
launching of the support aircraft. This was the last contact with them. No
distress signals were received and all efforts to locate or make contact
with them were unsuccessful. Their last known location was about 15 miles
off the coast of North Vietnam, due east of the city of Ron.

All three men were listed Missing In Action, and were not declared dead
until seven years later, at which time their deaths were accounted as
hostile deaths occurring while the men were missing, indicating that enemy
action was involved, not merely in a watery grave. Despite these
determinations, the Navy judged that the aircraft flew or fell into the
water prior to departing their over-water holding point. A naval casualty
board determined that their bodies could not be recovered.

Although returned U.S. prisoners in 1973 were unable to show that either he
or his crewmen were ever in the prison system, in the absence of proof
otherwise, it is possible to entertain the notion that the three, if they
managed to escape the sinking aircraft, could have been picked up by
Vietnamese boats who happened to be in the coastal area.

Certainly, the possibility also exists that Crain, Pawlish and Galvin died
the day their aircraft went down. They are among nearly 2500 Americans still
missing, prisoner or unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.

Unfortunately, nearly 10,000 reports have convinced many authorities that
there are hundreds of Americans still alive and in captivity in Southeast
Asia. Whether the crew of the A3 is among them is uncertain, but one cannot
question that it is long past time to bring our men home.

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