WAX, DAVID "J"
REMAINS IDENTIFIED 02 AUG 93

Name: David "J" Wax
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 01 August 1941
Home City of Record:
Date of Loss: 20 December 1965
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 125901N 1091845E
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: C130E
Refno: 02112
Other Personnel in Incident: (none 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: David J. "Waxie" Wax was known for his wit and good humor at the
Air Force Academy. He had a promising career ahead when he took flight
training and was shipped to Vietnam.

On December 20, 1965, 1LT David J. Wax was the co-pilot of a C130E that was
on a combat mission in Phu Yen Province, South Vietnam. The C130, created by
Lockheed filled many roles in Vietnam, including transport, tanker, gunship,
drone controller, airborne battlefield command and control center, weather
reconnaissance, electronic reconnaissance, and search, rescue and recovery.
The C130E was outfitted for electronic reconnaissance.

The aircraft was hit by enemy fire and crashed about 10 miles south of the
city of Tuy Hoa. 1LT Wax is the only man missing from the aircraft, so it is
presumed that the rest of the crew was either rescued or recovered. It was
deemed at the time that Wax was killed in the crash and he was classified
Killed in Action, with no hope of recovering his body.

Dave Wax is listed among the missing because his remains were never found to
send home to the country he served. He died a tragically ironic death in the
midst of war. But, for his family, the case seems clear that he died on that
day. The fact that they have no body to bury with honor is not of great
significance.

For other who are missing, however, the evidence leads not to death, but to
survival. Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports received relating to
Americans still held captive in Indochina have convinced experts that
hundreds of men are still alive, waiting for their country to rescue them.
The notion that Americans are dying without hope in the hands of a long-ago
enemy belies the idea that we left Vietnam with honor. It also signals that
tens of thousands of lost lives were a frivolous waste of our best men.


David J. Wax graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1963.

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