Name: Russell Palmer Hunter, Jr.
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 13th Bombing Squadron, Da Nang AFB SV
Date of Birth: 23 May 1935
Home City of Record: Glastonbury CT
Date of Loss: 10 February 1966
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 164200N 1062100E (XD413458)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: B57B
Refno: 0250

KIEFEL, ERNEST PHILIP, JR.

Name: Ernest Philip Kiefel, Jr.
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 13th Bombing Squadron, Da Nang AFB SV
Date of Birth: 11 May 1933
Home City of Record: Harrisburg PA
Date of Loss: 10 February 1966
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 164200N 1062100E (XD413458)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: B57B
Refno: 0250
Other Personnel In Incident: Both men above were listed as missing on this mission.
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 31 April 1990
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 1998.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: The B57 Canberra bomber was dispatched to Vietnam
in response to the Tonkin Gulf incident in the summer of 1964.
Although the upgrading of Vietnamese anti-aircraft and ground attacks
made the B57 vulnerable after a time, it still proved valuable as a light bomber,
and in interdiction missions over Laos.
Capt. Russell P. Hunter Jr. was the pilot of a B57B Canberra
sent on an night strike mission over Laos on February 10, 1966.
His navigator/co-pilot was Capt. Ernest P. Kiefel Jr.,
an Air Force officer with 16 years service.
The two men were assigned to the 13th Bombing Squadron
based at Da Nang, South Vietnam.
(NOTE: Some records indicate that these two men were based
in the Philippines. It is possible that they were on
a short-duty tour from a unit in the Philippines and working
with the 13th Bombing Squadron.)
Hunter's aircraft was on its second pass over a target
on the Ho Chi Minh Trail when Hunter reported he was having
difficulty with the aircraft and the crew members were bailing out.
Neither Hunter nor Kiefel were found after the aircraft went down.
Their last known location was about 5 miles east of the city
of Sepone in Savannakhet Province.
(NOTE: Air Force records state "the crew members were bailing out,"
which can be misinterpreted unless one understands that the Canberra
was a two-man aircraft. The crew, in this case, consisted of Hunter and Kiefel only.)
What happened to Hunter and Kiefel is not known.
They are among nearly 600 Americans who disappeared in the "secret war"
in Laos and never returned. When 591 Americans were released from prisons
in Vietnam in 1973 at the end of the war, not one American held by
the Lao was among them.
No treaty or agreement has been signed to secure their release
since that day, although the Lao stated publicly that they held prisoners and would release them only from Laos. There is ample reason to believe that
the Vietnamese and/or the Communist Lao know what happened to Hunter
and Kiefel on December 29, 1967.
There have been nearly 10,000 reports given to the U.S.
Government relating to Americans prisoner, missing, or otherwise
unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. Many officials who have seen this
largely classified information have reluctantly concluded that hundreds
of Americans are still alive in captivity today.
Whether Hunter and Kiefel might be among them is unknown.
What is certain, however, is that as long as even one man remains
held against his will in Indochina, we must do everything possible to bring him home.
Both Hunter and Kiefel were promoted to the
rank of Lieutenent Colonel during the period they were maintainted missing.