Bio, Plowman, James E.

Name: James Edwin Plowman
Rank/Branch: O2/US Navy
Unit: Attack Squadron 85, USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63)
Date of Birth: 14 October 1943 (Miami FL)
Home City of Record: Pebble Beach CA
Date of Loss: 24 March 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 212500N 1065700E (YJ020693)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: A6A
Refno: 0629

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1991 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 2020.

SYNOPSIS: LtCdr. John Ellison was the pilot of an A6A Intruder jet aircraft
that launched from the USS Kitty Hawk on March 24, 1967 on a combat mission
over North Vietnam. Ellison's Bombardier/Navigator that day was Ltjg. James
Plowman. The two were assigned to a strike force suppression mission against
Bac Giang Thermal Power Plant in North Vietnam. They were to suppress
surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites. The target was defended by SAM sites,
light, medium and heavy anti-aircraft batteries, automatic weapons and small
arms. After the "bombs away" call, the airborne Combat Information Officer
tracked their aircraft about 11 miles north of the planed track. Radar
indications disappeared in the vicinity of Ha Bac Province, North Vietnam.
Although Ellison had radio contact with rescuers, he and Plowman were not
rescued. Ha Bac Province is in extreme northern Vietnam near the border of
China.

The families of Ellison and Plowman wonder what happened to their men that
day. There is no indication that they died when their plane disappeared, and
unofficial reports that they have been unable to verify suggest that one or
both may have been captured. A photo of a POW in the front of a march
conducted in China was identified by Navy officer and returned POW Robert
Flynn who was released by the Chinese in 1973 as being James E. Plowman.
Flynn also saw a photo of Ellison while held in China.

Plowman's wife identified him from a North Vietnamese photo just prior to
December 1970, and his parents identified him from a 1967 North Vietnamese
photo.

After Seaman Douglas Hegdahl was released from Hanoi in 1969, he told family
members of Buzz Ellison that he had seen Buzz.

Ellison and Plowman were maintained throughout the war as Missing In Action.
Even though there seems to be some doubt that the two died and that they may
have been prisoners after all, their status was never changed, and by 1980,
they had been declared administratively dead.

Although evidence existed that China held prisoners from the Korean conflict
and the Vietnam war, the U.S. rushed towards friendly relations with that
country, ignoring their best men. Today, there is evidence that Vietnam is
holding hundreds of prisoners from the war in Vietnam, yet the U.S. is again
signing the death warrants of her best men in the rush for normalization of
relations.

James E. Plowman attended the University of Washington where he majored in
meteorology and minored in oceanography. He became a member of Sigma Chi and
was active in the NROTC program. Upon his June, 1965, graduation, he was
commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. He was married on November 6, 1966
and after a ten-day honeymoon, was shipped to Vietnam. On August 18, 1967,
his wife gave birth to a baby boy. Plowman does not know he has a son.

....Capt. John C. Ellison, Layton, and Lt. James Plowman, Pebble Beach, Calif.,
were last heard from on March 24, 1967. That was the day their A-6A Intruder
disappeared from radar as the low-level attack jet headed toward the Gulf of
Tonkin near the Vietnam-China border......

U.S. PERSONNEL MISSING FROM THE VIETNAM WAR: The number listed by
DoD as missing and unaccounted for since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 is now
1,802 - 1,377 in Vietnam, 364 in Laos, 54 in Cambodia and 7 in PRC
territorial waters. Though DoD has not yet made a formal announcement,
media reports quote the son carried the name of LCDR James E. Plowman, USN,
listed as MIA in North Vietnam on March 24, 1967.

LCDR JAMES EDWIN PLOWMAN

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Conflict
Service
Status
Date of Accounting

VIETNAM WAR
UNITED STATES NAVY
Accounted For
06/12/2006

On June 12, 2006, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Lieutenant Commander James Edwin Plowman, missing from the Vietnam War.

Lieutenant Commander Plowman joined the U.S. Navy from California and was a member of Attack Squadron 42. On March 24, 1967, he was the bombardier/navigator aboard an A-6A Intruder on a night strike mission over enemy territory in Vietnam. The A-6A was shot down over Ha Bac Province, North Vietnam, during the mission, and LCDR Plowman was killed in the resulting crash. His remains could not be recovered following the incident. In September 1996, a joint U.S. and Vietnamese investigative team recovered remains from the A-6A's crash site. Advances in forensic techniques eventually allowed for the remains to be identified as those of LCDR Plowman.

Lieutenant Commander Plowman 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.

LCDR JAMES EDWIN PLOWMAN

Unit VA 85
Historical Country of Loss
North Vietnam
Current Country of Loss
VIETNAM
Home of Record CA