CORDIER, KENNETH WILLIAM

Name: Kenneth William Cordier
Rank/Branch: O3/United States Air Force, pilot
Unit: 559th TFS Cam Rahn Bay
Date of Birth: 16 February 1937
Home City of Record: Canton OH
Date of Loss: 02 December 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 213000N 1050000E
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4C, #7608
Missions: 91 (175)
Incident No: 0532
Other Personnel in Incident: Mike Lane, Returnee

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK 06 September 1996 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. 2002.

REMARKS: 730304 RELEASED BY DRV

SOURCE: WE CAME HOME  copyright 1977
Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor
P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602
Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and
spelling errors).

KENNETH W.  CORDIER
Major -  United States Air Force
Shot down: December 2, 1966
Released: March 4, 1973
                     

I was born 16 February 1937 in Canton, Ohio. I attended school in Akron,
Ohio and graduated from the University of Akron in 1960 with a degree in
Mechanical Engineering. I was commisioned through the ROTC. After pilot
training at Laughlin AFB, Del Rio, Texas, I was stationed at MacDill AFB,
Florida, prior to my departure for Southeast Asia. Judy and I were married
in June 1959 and we have two children Ann, 12, and Louis, 10.

I left my family in Tampa for a tour at Cam Rahn Bay, South Vietnam in June
1966. I had had a previous tour at Ubon, Thailand in 1965 and was on my
175th mission when shot down on 2 December 1966. An unusual aspect of my
shoot-down was that after I ejected at 24,000 feet from my F-4C when it
suffered a direct hit by a SAM. I fell through the fireball of a second SAM
fired at my aircraft.  Fortunately, I received only minor burns

I was captured almost immediately after reaching the ground and after an all
night truck ride to Hanoi, I began my seventy-five month tour as a POW.

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Kenneth Cordier retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel. He
and his wife Barbie reside in Dallas.

In collecting information for another project, Ken noted he was held in
heartbreak (Hanoi Hilton), Zoo, Zoo Annex, Hope, Unity (Hanoi Hilton) and
Dogpatch "in that order." He has since returned to his possible shootdown
sites, (believed to be just E/NE of Yen Bai) but none turned out to be the
actual site.

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