HYNDS, WALLACE GOURLEY JR.

Name: Wallace Gourley Hynds Jr.
Rank/Branch: O6/US Air Force
Unit: 10th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron
Date of Birth: 28 May 1925
Home City of Record: Sumter SC
Date of Loss: 02 August 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 183115N 1052451E (WF405462)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: RF4C
Refno: 0782
Other Personnel in Incident: Carey A. Cunningham (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 1990 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 1998.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: Col. Wallace G. Hynds was the pilot and Capt. Carey A. Cunningham
the radar navigator of an RF4C reconnaissance version of the Phantom
fighter/bomber. The two were assigned to the 10th Tactical Reconnaissance
Squadron.

On August 2, 1967, Hynds and Cunningham were flying the lead plane in a
flight of two aircraft on a reconnaissance mission near the city of Vinh in
North Vietnam. The number two aircraft observed Hynds' aircraft to crash to
the ground and explode. No parachutes were heard, and no emergency beeper
signals were heard. Based on their visual observation, the two men were
declared killed.

The U.S. Government believes the Vietnamese could account for Hynds and
Cunningham, primarily because the area was relatively heavily populated and
there were enemy forces present. However, the Vietnamese have denied any
knowledge of either Hynds or Cunningham.

Hynds and Cunningham are listed among the missing because their bodies were
never recovered. Others who are missing do not have such clear-cut cases.
Some were known captives; some were photographed as they were led by their
guards. Some were in radio contact with search teams, while others simply
disappeared.

Since the war ended, over 250,000 interviews have been conducted with those
who claim to know about Americans still alive in Southeast Asia, and several
million documents have been studied. U.S. Government experts cannot seem to
agree whether Americans are there alive or not. Detractors say it would be
far too politically difficult to bring the men they believe to be alive
home, and the U.S. is content to negotiate for remains.

Well over 1000 first-hand, eye-witness reports of American prisoners still
alive in Southeast Asia have been received by 1990. Most of them are still
classified. If, as the U.S. seems to believe, the men are all dead, why the
secrecy after so many years? If the men are alive, why are they not home?

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