Bio, Chambers, Jerry L.

Name: Jerry Lee Chambers
Rank/Branch: O4/USAF
Unit: 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron, Ubon RTAFB
Date of Birth: 12 October 1932
Home City of Record: Muskogee OK
Date of Loss: 22 May 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 162000N 1063000E (XC843858)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: C130A
Refno: 1187

Other Personnel in Incident: John Q. Adam; Calvin C. Glover; Thomas E.
Knebel; William H. Mason; William T. McPhail; Thomas B. Mitchell; Gary Pate;
Melvin D. Rash (all missing)

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 2020.

SYNOPSIS: The Lockheed C130 Hercules aircraft was a multi-purpose propeller
driven aircraft, and was used as transport, tanker, gunship, drone
controller, airborne battlefield command and control center, weather
reconnaissance craft, electronic reconnaissance platform; search, rescue and
recovery craft.

In the hands of the "trash haulers", as the crews of Tactical Air Command
transports styled themselves, the C130 proved the most valuable airlift
instrument in the Southeast Asia conflict, so valuable that Gen. William
Momyer, 7th Air Force commander, refused for a time to let them land at Khe
Sanh where the airstrip was under fire from NVA troops surrounding that
base.

Just following the Marine Corps operation Pegasus/Lam Son 207 in mid-April
1968, to relieve the siege of Khe Sanh, Operation Scotland II began in the
Khe Sanh area, more or less as a continuation of this support effort. The
C130 was critical in resupplying this area, and when the C130 couldn't land,
dropped its payload by means of parachute drop.

One of the bases from which the C130 flew was Ubon, located in northeast
Thailand. C130 crews from this base crossed Laos to their objective
location. One such crew was comprised of LtCol. William H. Mason and Capt.
Thomas B. Mitchell, pilots; Capt. William T. McPhail, Maj. Jerry L.
Chambers [SEE NOTE BELOW], SA Gary Pate, SSgt. Calvin C. Glover, AM1 Melvin
D. Rash, and AM1 John Q. Adam, crew members.

On May 22, 1968, this crew departed Ubon on an operational mission in a
C130A carrying one passenger - AM1 Thomas E. Knebel. Radio contact was lost
while the aircraft was over Savannakhet Province, Laos near the city of
Muong Nong, (suggesting that its target area may have been near the DMZ -
Khe Sanh). When the aircraft did not return to friendly control, the crew
was declared Missing In Action from the time of estimated fuel exhaustion.
There was no further word of the aircraft or its crew.

The nine members of the crew are among nearly 600 Americans who disappeared
in Laos. Many are known to have been alive on the ground following their
shoot downs. Although the Pathet Lao publicly stated on several occasions
that they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, not one American held
in Laos has ever been released. Laos did not participate in the Paris Peace
accords ending American involvement in the war in 1973, and no treaty has
ever been signed that would free the Americans held in Laos, and not one of
them has returned home.

William Mason was a 1946 graduate of West Point. Thomas Mitchell was a 1963
graduate of the Air Force Academy.

There is some information incorrect in this posting. LTC, then Major
Chambers was the passanger. LTC. Jerry L Chambers was a FAC assigned to the
23rd TASS at NAKOM PHANOM. During this flight he was present as an observer.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just wanted to let you know, the group remains burial for the crew from this C-130 will
occur on 10 Jun 2010 at 0800 at Arlington National Cemetery. There will be a flyover
of the remains transfer at 9:00 a.m.

Here are the names of the crew:

Jerry L. Chambers; Calvin C. Glover; Thomas E.

Knebel; William H. Mason; William T. McPhail; Thomas B. Mitchell; Gary Pate;

Melvin D. Rash (all missing)

LT COL JERRY LEE CHAMBERS

Return to Service Member Profiles

Conflict
Service
Status
Date of Accounting

VIETNAM WAR
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
Accounted For
05/27/2009

On March 13, 2009, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Lee Chambers, missing from the Vietnam War.

Lieutenant Colonel Chambers joined the U.S. Air Force from Oklahoma and was a member of the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron. On May 22, 1968, he was the observer aboard a C-130 Hercules with a crew of nine on a nighttime flare mission over northern Salavan Province, Laos. The Hercules crashed during its flight, killing all nine members of the crew. Immediate search efforts could not be conducted due to heavy anti-aircraft fire in the area. Between 1989 and 2008, joint Laotian, Vietnamese, and American search teams conducted field investigations and excavations in the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam, recovering aircraft wreckage and human remains. In 2009, modern forensic techniques were able to individually identify the remains of the crew of the Hercules, including those of Lt Col Chambers.

Lieutenant Colonel Chambers 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.

Lt Col JERRY LEE CHAMBERS

Unit
Historical Country of Loss
South Vietnam
Current Country of Loss
VIETNAM
Home of Record OK