| The Incident
On 06 March 1971, WO John F.
Hummel, pilot, and WO William P. Milliner, co-pilot, were flying
an AH1G Cobra helicopter gunship (serial #67-15464) as the
wingman in a flight of two helicopters returning from a combat
support mission over Laos. While in route, the weather turned
hazy. At about 2000 hours, the wingman notified his troop's
forward operation at Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, that both gunships
were planning to use a ground control approach (GCA). That was
the last radio contact with WO Hummel's aircraft.
The lead gunship contacted the
Khe Sanh GCA and was told to climb to 5000 feet and make a left
360 degree turn to a heading of 020 degrees. The wingman was
still with the lead aircraft at this time, but no radio contact
could be established with him.
Shortly after, the GCA control
informed the lead aircraft to turn to a heading of 070 degrees at
4000 feet. After a descending turn was initiated, WO Hummel's
aircraft passed over the top of the lead aircraft. This
separation occurred in the clear, and then the flight leader
entered the cloud layer so no further visual sighting of WO
Hummel's aircraft occurred. The lead aircraft landed
safely.
Search and rescue efforts were
begun for Hummel and Milliner, but had negative results. Hummel
and Milliner were listed Missing in Action. Some years later, the
Defense Intelligence Agency "rated" missing persons in Southeast
Asia according to the degree of suspected enemy knowledge, using
a scale of 1 to 5. Hummel and Milliner were classified "Category
1", meaning the U.S. had reliable information that the enemy knew
the fate of Hummel and Milliner. Category 1 does not suggest
whether an individual was alive or dead at the time this
knowledge was obtained.
Another confusing aspect of the
records of Hummel and Milliner is that the Defense Department
classifies their loss as "non-hostile". This information does not
seem to correlate with known enemy knowledge of their fates,
unless reports were received that the two survived the crash of
their aircraft only to stumble into enemy hands at a later time.
Clarifying information is not available in public
records.
Since 1989, Billy Milliner has
been the subject of a "dogtag report" that included his correct
social security number and several live sighting reports. All of
these reports indicated he was a prisoner of war in Laos rather
then in South Vietnam. Some of them referred to him as being held
in a group of 13 American POWs while other reports only mentioned
him. Likewise, these reports have been provided to the US
Government as well as to WO Milliner's family. The most recent of
these reports was received in 1999. If these reports are true,
then there is no question that the communists can return Billy
Milliner any time they wish to. Further, if they know the fate of
the Cobra's co-pilot, then they most certainly also know the fate
of its pilot, John Hummel.
No one saw Hummel and Milliner
die after their aircraft disappeared into the clouds. As
participants in missions over Laos, which were often classified
and dangerous, they were undoubtedly warned that they could be
killed or captured. They may not have dreamed they would be
abandoned.
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