HARDIE, CHARLES DAVID

Name: Charles David Hardie
Rank/Branch: E5/US Navy
Unit:
Date of Birth: 21 September 1940
Home City of Record: Houston TX
Date of Loss: 27 July 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 165459N 1103657E (DU591702)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: KA3H
Refno: 0773

Other Personnel in Incident: Bruce M. Patterson (missing)

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. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.

REMARKS: ALL PARAD - PILOT RES - NOT SUBJ - J

SYNOPSIS: The A3 Skywarrior is a three-place light bomber, reconnaissance
plane, electronic warfare craft or aerial tanker, depending upon its
outfitting. The KA3H was outfitted as an aerial tanker. Its function was to
stand by at a safe distance from target areas to be ready to refuel fighter
aircraft.

ENS Bruce M. Patterson and AE2 Charles D. Hardie were part of the crew of a
U.S. Navy KA3H. On July 27, 1967, their aircraft was airborne about 200
miles due east from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) when it encountered
difficulties requiring the three crewmen to parachute from the crippled
aircraft. The crew safely parachuted from the plane, but only the pilot was
rescued. Patterson and Hardie were never found. It was assumed they drowned.
Both were classified Killed, Body Not Recovered.

The Defense Intelligence Agency further expanded the classification to
include an enemy knowledge ranking of 5. Category 5 includes personnel who
are considered to be dead, and whose remains have been declared
non-recoverable.

Since the war ended in Vietnam, refugees have flooded the world, bringing
with them stories of American soldiers still held prisoner in their
homeland. Many authorities now believe that hundreds were left behind as
living hostages, and that substantial numbers of these are still alive
today.

Hardie and Patterson apparently did not survive the events of July 27, 1967.
Their families have accepted that they is dead and they no longer expect
them to come home. But hundreds of families wait expectantly and in the
special agony only uncertainty can bring. Hundreds of men may wait in caves,
cages and prisons. How much longer will we allow the abandonment of our best
men? It's time we brought them home.

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