WHEELER, JAMES ATLEE

Name: James Atlee Wheeler
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: (unknown, per USAF)
Date of Birth: 10 February 1933
Home City of Record: Tucson AZ
Date of Loss: 18 April 1965
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 1002921N 1045451E (VX906594)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A1E
Refno: 0075
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: CRASH - TARGET AREA

SYNOPSIS: The Douglas A1 Skyraider ("Spad") is a highly maneuverable,
propeller driven aircraft designed as a multipurpose attack bomber or
utility aircraft. The A1 was first used by the Air Force in its Tactical Air
Command to equip the first Air Commando Group engaged in counterinsurgency
operations in South Vietnam. The aircraft was retired in the spring of 1968
and had flown in more than twenty model variations, probably more than any
other U.S. combat aircraft.

Capt. James A. Wheeler was the pilot of an A1E assigned an interdiction
mission about 10 miles south of Tinh Bien in South Vietnam on April 18,
1965. The target area, very close to the Cambodian border, was in Chau Doc
Province. During Wheeler's dive bombing attack, his aircraft was seen to
release a fragmentation bomb which detonated immediately. The aircraft dived
straight into the ground trailing fuel and smoke and exploded on impact. It
was determined that Wheeler could not have survived.

James A. Wheeler is listed among the missing because his remains 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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