SYNOPSIS: On April 24, 1967, Lt.Cdr. Edwin B. Tucker launched from USS Bon Homme
Richard on board an F8C Crusader aircraft accompanying eight A4 bombers that had
targeted rail lines near Hon Gay City, Quang Ninh Province, North Vietnam. Tucker's
job was to draw anti-aircraft fire long enough to allow the bombers to complete their
bombing runs.
As Lt.Cdr. Tucker passed through 5,000 feet his plane took a direct hit by 85mm anti-
aircraft fire. Tucker bailed out before the aircraft crashed, and pilots in the bombers
observed his fully opened parachute. Numerous reports place Tucker safely on the
ground near Hon Gay City, northeast of Hanoi.
Subsequent intelligence reports indicate that after landing, Tucker was severely injured
and taken to the city hospital at Hon Gay City where he subsequently died of his wounds.
Because this intelligence indicates that he was captured, the U.S. Government placed
Tucker in a Prisoner of War category.
A 1967 Nhan Dan newspaper article praised a Vietnamese peasant, who, defending
himself with only a hoe, overcame an "American pilot war criminal". This article
possibly correlates to Lt.Cdr. Tucker.
After his death, the flesh was removed from Tucker's body, and his skeleton prepared
and used as a teaching aid in the medical school of Quang Ninh province in Hon Gay
City. This information was provided by persons formerly associated with either the
medical school or the hospital, and reports were received by the U.S. over a period of
several years.
Tucker's status remained POW until 1974 until a "Presumptive Finding of Death"
(PFOD) occurred. Over the next 20 years, Vietnamese ignored repeated requests that
Tucker's remains be returned to the United States. Lt.Cdr. Tucker's remains were
hanging at a teaching hospital where they were nothing more than a skeletal scientific
specimen to be poked and probed for whatever medical secrets it held. Included in the
case with Tucker's skeleton was his flight helmet with his name stenciled across the front.
In late November 1988, Edwin B. Tucker's remains were repatriated after family
members and U.S. officials agreed not to disclose details about the case that might
embarrass Vietnam.
The peculiar case of Edwin B. Tucker brought outcries from those close to the POW/MIA
issue. They were outraged that an American hero could be so callously displayed "under
the nose of the U.S. for over 20 years". They were further enraged that the U.S. had such
weak bargaining power that the only way Tucker's remains could be returned for an
honorable burial was for the Vietnamese' unspeakable actions to be ignored entirely.
Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing in Southeast
Asia have been received by the U.S. Government. Many authorities believe there are
hundreds of Americans still alive. Little wonder, according to critics, "that these men
are still prisoner. If the U.S. cannot honorably negotiate the return of a skeleton they
have known details of for 20 years, how can they manage the freedom of those who are alive? Who are
we trying to protect from embarrassment -- Vietnam or the U.S.?"
(Edwin Byron Tucker graduated from Tufts University and was buried with full military
honors at Arlington National Cemetery.)
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