Name:CMS. Thomas Edward Knebel
Rank/Branch: E3/USAF
Unit: 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron, Ubon Airbase, Thailand
Date of Birth: 11 June 1947
Home City of Record: Midway AR
Date of Loss: 22 May 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 162000N 1063000E (XC843858)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: C130A
The Wall:Panel 65E - Row 012
Marital Status:Single
Date of Casualty:Thursday, June 29, 1978
Casualty Type:Hostile, died while missing{A3}
Lenght of Time:Ten Years = One Month - 7 Days
It is about time that we speak out and demand that our government bring our soldiers home.
Please contact your Senators or Member of Congress let them know we will hold them accountable.
To obtain EMail addresses for the Senate, Congress and Whitehouse go to:
If you are located in Arkansas, please contact one or more of the following for CMS. Thomas E. Knebel:
The Lockheed C130 Hercules aircraft was a multi-purpose propeller driven
aircraft, and was used as transport, tanker, gunship, drone controller, airborne battlefield
command and control center, weather reconnaissance craft, electronic reconnaissance
platform; search, rescue and recovery craft.
In the hands of the "trash haulers", as the crews of Tactical Air Command transports
styled themselves, the C130 proved the most valuable airlift instrument in the Southeast
Asia conflict, so valuable that Gen. William Momyer, 7th Air Force commander, refused
for a time to let them land at Khe Sanh where the airstrip was under fire from NVA troops
surrounding that base.
Just following the Marine Corps operation Pegasus/Lam Son 207 in mid-April 1968, to
relieve the siege of Khe Sanh, Operation Scotland II began in the Khe Sanh area, more or
less as a continuation of this support effort. The C130 was critical in resupplying this area,
and when the C130 couldn't land, dropped its payload by means of parachute drop.
One of the bases from which the C130 flew was Ubon, located in northeast Thailand. C130
crews from this base crossed Laos to their objective location. One such crew was
comprised of LtCol. William H. Mason and Capt. Thomas B. Mitchell, pilots; Capt.
William T. McPhail, Maj. Jerry L. Chambers, SA Gary Pate, SSgt. Calvin C. Glover,
AM1 Melvin D. Rash, and AM1 John Q. Adam, crew members.
On May 22, 1968, this crew departed Ubon on an operational mission in a C130A carrying
one passenger - AM1 Thomas E. Knebel. Radio contact was lost while the aircraft was
over Savannakhet Province, Laos near the city of Muong Nong, (suggesting that its target
area may have been near the DMZ - Khe Sanh). When the aircraft did not return to
friendly control, the crew was declared Missing In Action from the time of estimated fuel
exhaustion. There was no further word of the aircraft or its crew.
The nine members of the crew are among nearly 600 Americans who disappeared in Laos.
Many are known to have been alive on the ground following their shoot downs. Although
the Pathet Lao publicly stated on several occasions that they held "tens of tens" of
American prisoners, not one American held in Laos has ever been released. Laos did not
participate in the Paris Peace accords ending American involvment in the war in 1973, and
no treaty has ever been signed that would free the Americans held in Laos, and not one of
them has returned home.
John Q. Adam could still be alive. He isn't aware that his home town of Bethel has lost its
identity, having been incorporated into a growing Kansas City, Kansas, but there can be
no doubt that he knows he has been abandoned by the country he proudly served.
If you'd like to see what some others are doing in addition to writing their congressmen,
senators and the Whitehouse, check out some of these sites:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2107/pow.html
http://www.sihope.com/~tipi/mia.html
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/1472/mia.html
|
This
POW/MIA Ring
site |
|
Sign My Guest-Book
View My Guest-Book
