LAWS, RICHARD LEE

REMAINS ID'd 2013

Name: Richard Lee Laws
Branch/Rank: United States Navy/O3
Unit: Fighter Squadron 24 (VF-24)
Date of Birth: 25 March 1940
Home City of Record: SACRAMENTO CA
Date of Loss: 03 April 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 195357 North  1052558 East
Status (in 1973): Killed In Action/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F8E #146919
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno: 0294

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined Action
Combat Casualty File.  2020

REMARKS:

CACCF/CRASH/PILOT/4 YRS USN

No further information available at this time.

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http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/04/5162865/47-years-later-w-sac-navy-pilot.html#storylink=misearch

47 years later, W. Sac Navy pilot killed in Vietnam will get his funeral

 

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Feb. 4, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
Last Modified: Monday, Feb. 4, 2013 - 8:33 am

There was little doubt that West Sacramento's Richard L. Laws died April 3, 1966, when the naval
fighter pilot's aircraft was hit by enemy fire and crashed in
 North Vietnam.

"After making a strafing run on the target, Lt. Laws radioed that his aircraft had been hit," reads a
military report on his death. "Twenty seconds later, his flight lead observed Laws' aircraft impact a
hillside and explode."

The report goes on to state that a parachute was observed but it was not used. No further radio contact
was received from the 26-year-old Laws after impact......

 

 
Subject: Submission
Date: Wed, 2 May 2018 19:53:33 +0000

 

LT Richard L. Laws was a U.S. Navy pilot serving with Fighter Squadron 24 (VF-24) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CVA-19). On April 3, 1966, LT Laws was in a F-8C Crusader jet aircraft (#146919) on a combat mission at Bai Thuong in Thanh Hoa Province inside of North Vietnam. After making a strafing run on the target, Laws radioed that his aircraft had been hit. Twenty seconds later, his flight lead observed Laws' aircraft impact a hillside and explode. A parachute was observed but it was not used. No further radio contact was received from the Laws after impact. Laws was declared Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered. From 1994 to 2003, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam teams conducted interviews and excavations of the crash site in Thanh Hoa Province. The teams recovered human remains, U.S. aircraft wreckage, personal effects, and life-support equipment; however, no remains could be attributed to Laws given the technology of the time. In 2006, additional human remains, aircraft wreckage, personal effects, and life-support equipment were recovered from the site. The U.S., using circumstantial evidence and mitochondrial-DNA identification methods, were able to identify Laws’ remains. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org]


 

Submitted by William M. Killian

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01/2020

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000pQkkAEAS

LT RICHARD LEE LAWS

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On January 1, 2013, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Lieutenant Richard Lee Laws, missing from the Vietnam War.

Lieutenant Laws joined the U.S. Navy from California and was a member of Fighter Squadron 24. On April 3, 1966, he piloted an F-8E Crusader on an attack mission against enemy ground targets in Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. His aircraft was downed by enemy ground fire during the mission, and LT Laws was killed in the crash. After the war, joint U.S. and Vietnamese search teams investigated the Crusader's crash site and recovered remains; however, technology at the time was incapable of attributing them to LT Laws. In 2013, modern advances in forensic techniques allowed for the identification of LT Laws from among the remains recovered at the Crusader's crash site. 

Lieutenant Laws is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. 

If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.