COAKLEY, WILLIAM FRANCIS
Remains Returned, ID'd 1989
Name: William Francis Coakley
Rank/Branch: O4/US Navy
Unit: Attack Squadron 153, USS Constellation (CVA-64)
Date of Birth: 12 August 1933
Home City of Record: Lennox MA
Date of Loss: 13 September 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 193657N 1054757E (WG838690)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A4C
Refno: 0457
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled 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 in 2020.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: LtCdr. William F. Coakley was a pilot assigned to Attack Squadron
153 onboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation (CVA-64). On the night of
September 13, 1966, he launched in his A4C "Skyhawk" attack aircraft on an
armed reconnaissance mission into North Vietnam.
Coakley's aircraft commenced an identification pass under a single flare
dropped by his flight leader. He reported by radio that he was in his run
and immediately thereafter, the flight leader observed Coakley's aircraft
impact the ground spreading flames over a large area. No transmissions were
received in response to calls, no signaling devices were seen or heard. It
is suspected that enemy ground fire or Coakley's excessive concentration on
the target area caused his collision with the ground. No ejection or
parachute was seen.
Coakley's status was initially Missing In Action, but was changed the
following day, September 14, 1966, by the on scene commander to Killed In
Action, Body Not Recovered. He was among nearly 2500 Americans still
unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.
In early 1989, the U.S. announced that remains returned by Vietnam had been
positively identified as those of Commander William F. Coakley. For 22
years, the Vietnamese denied any knowledge of him or his fate, but
"discovered" his remains and returned them to U.S. control. According to the
Vietnamese, Coakley died instantly when a Surface to Air Missile (SAM) hit
his aircraft.
Coakley was a career Navy officer, having been in the service since the
1950's. The agonizing wait is over for his mother, Jeannette, age 85 who
wondered for 23 years whether he was a prisoner of war. "All those years I
worried about his being in prison. It's a terrible thing when you know how
he might have been tortured. I'm very sad and happy all at once," Coakley's
mother told Boston Globe reporter Ray Richard.
Since war's end, thousands of reports have been received indicating that
many Americans did not perish in their crashes as Coakley evidently did, but
survived, and are still alive today waiting for the country they served to
bring them home. What are we doing to secure their freedom?
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01/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000ukCpDEAU
On May 23, 1989, the Central Identification Lab-Hawaii (CILHI, now
DPAA) identified the remains of Lieutenant Commander William
Francis Coakley, missing from the Vietnam War.
Lieutenant Commander Coakley, who joined the U.S. Navy from
Massachusetts, served with Attack Squadron 153, Carrier Air Wing
15, embarked aboard the USS Constellation (CVA-64). On September
13, 1966, he piloted an A-4C Skyhawk (bureau number 147763) on
an armed reconnaissance mission over Thanh Hoa Province, North
Vietnam. During the mission, the Skyhawk was hit by an enemy
surface-to-air missile and LCDR Coakley was killed. Hostile
presence in the area inhibited search efforts during the war and
his body was not recovered at the time. In 1988, the Vietnamese
government repatriated remains which were later identified as
those of LCDR Coakley.
Lieutenant Commander Coakley 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.