ATTENTION ALL WEBSURFERS!!!

Name: Paul Eugene Swigart, Jr.
Rank/Branch: O2/US Navy
Unit:
Date of Birth: 28 January 1944
Home City of Record:Seal Beach,CA
Date of Loss: 05 February 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam/Over Water ** (see text)
Loss Coordinates: 175607N 1074416E (YE900850) ** (see text)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F8H Crusader
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 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.

REMARKS:
Please click on the "Home City of Record" link to find out who are ultimately responsible for the safe return of this missing serviceman.

SYNOPSIS:
The Vought F8 "Crusader" saw action early in U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Its fighter models participated both in the first Gulf of Tonkin reprisal in August 1964 and in the myriad attacks against North Vietnam during Operation Rolling Thunder.

The Crusader was used exclusively by the Navy and Marine air wings (although there is one U.S. Air Force pilot reported shot down on an F8) and represented half or more of the carrier fighters in the Gulf of Tonkin during the first four years of the war. The aircraft was credited with nearly 53% of MiG kills in Vietnam.

The most frequently used fighter versions of the Crusader in Vietnam were the C, D, and E models although the H and J were also used. The Charlie carried only Sidewinders on fuselage racks, and were assigned such missions as CAP (Combat Air Patrol), flying at higher altitudes. The Echo model had a heavier reinforced wing able to carry extra Sidewinders or bombs, and were used to attack ground targets, giving it increased vulnerability.The Echo version launched with less fuel, to accommodate the larger bomb store, and frequently arrived back at ship low on fuel.The RF models were equipped for photo reconnaissance.

The combat attrition rate of the Crusader was comparable to similar fighters. Between 1964 to 1972, eighty-three Crusaders were either lost or destroyed by enemy fire. Another 109 required major rebuilding. 145 Crusader pilots were recovered; 57 were not. Twenty of these pilots were captured and released.The other 43 remained missing at the end of the war.

LTJG Paul E. Swigart, Jr. was the pilot of an F8H conducting a non-combat flight on February 5, 1969. According to Defense Department records, Swigart's aircraft crashed offshore from South Vietnam. The coordinates given, however (175607N 074416E) are most definitely offshore from North Vietnam, about 80 miles east of the city of Rong. The grids (YE900850) are consistent with a loss offshore of North Vietnam.

Little hope was held that Swigart survived the crash of his aircraft and he was declared Killed/Body Not Recovered.

Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing, prisoner or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government. Many authorities who have examined this largely classified information are convinced that hundreds of Americans are still held captive today.

Fighter pilots in Vietnam were called upon to fly in many dangerous circumstances, and were prepared to be wounded, killed, or captured. It probably never occurred to them that they could be abandoned by the country they so proudly served.

If he is one of the hundreds of Americans experts now believe are still deceased in captivity in Southeast Asia, what are we doing to bring his remains home? What did he think of us, and why did the American government leave him to die in captivity?? Is it because of greed, or maybe the "river of denial" ran like a stream, and covered over the truth as to his release from his hell on earth.

Click here for the PMSEA (Personnel Missing Southeast Asia) for a detailed report on those accounted for, still missing, and unaccounted for from California.

If you would like to write to families of these missing servicemen, the only way I know is to go to this website, and follow the directions on the website.

When you write the letters to the families, please make sure that you address it in reference to the missing serviceperson's family.

This is how I got in touch with Mrs. Lucy Sennett.
She is the wife of one of my missing servicemen Robert R. Sennett.
I can only imagine what these families like Mrs. Lucy Sennett have been through of not knowing.
This must be hell on earth for them.

Please, let's make their lives easier by taking the torch for them and finding out what happened to their family member, and not accepting anything but the truth, and not subjecting ourselves to the "Presumptive Finding of Death" finding.
As a person of this cause, I can honestly say, that those families expect nothing less. Let's NOT ACCEPT anything less.

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