FERGUSON, DOUGLAS DAVID
Remains Identified 2014
Name: Douglas David Ferguson
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit: 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Udorn AB, Thailand
Date of Birth: 26 April 1945
Home City of Record: Tacoma WA
Date of Loss: 30 December 1969
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 195900N 1032900E (UH413101)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F4D
Refno: 1541
Other Personnel In Incident: Fielding W. Featherston III (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 with the assistance
of 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.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: The Plain of Jars region of Laos was long under the control of the
communist Pathet Lao and a continual effort had been made by the secret
CIA-directed force of some 30,000 indigenous tribesmen to strengthen
anti-communist strongholds there. The U.S. committed hundreds of millions of
dollars to the war effort in Laos, but details of this secret operation were
not released until August 1971.
Doug Ferguson and Fielding Featherston were aboard one of five F4D aircraft
on a mission into the Plaine des Jarres region of Laos on December 30, 1969.
Their ship was hit by enemy fire and exploded in a fireball. There were no
parachutes seen, nor were emergency radio "beeper" signals heard that day by
other aircraft.
On the following day, the crash site was photographed and two empty
parachutes were visible hanging in nearby trees. The area was too heavily
defended for a ground search to be possible.
Ferguson and Featherston may well have been captured. They are among the
nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos. Because Laos was "neutral", and because
the U.S. continued to state they were not at war with Laos (although we were
regularly bombing North Vietnamese traffic along the border and conducted
assaults against communist strongholds thoughout the country at the behest
of the anti-communist government of Laos), and did not recognize the Pathet
Lao as a government entity, the nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos were never
recovered.
The Pathet Lao stated that they would release the "tens of tens" of American
prisoners they held only from Laos. At war's end, no American held in Laos
was released - or negotiated for.
Voluminous evidence exists that Americans still survive, captive, in
Indochina. Until serious steps are taken to resolve the fate of these men,
the families of Ferguson and Featherston must wonder if their men are alive,
abandoned by their country.
Douglas D. Ferguson graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1967.
==========================================
Troy woman keeps her brother's memory alive by fighting for POWs
Web-posted Apr 15, 2007
By CAROL HOPKINS
Of The Oakland Press
Sue Scott was home in Southfield around Christmas 1969 when her
sister-in-law called her.
"She said my brother had been shot down," Scott said. "I said 'I don't
really believe it, I don't want to believe it.'".....
Contact Carol Hopkins at (248) 745-4645 or carol.hopkins@oakpress.com.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/041507/loc_2007041587.shtml
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/03/09/3087225/remains-of-tacoma-airman-killed.html
Remains of Tacoma airman killed in 1969 will finally return
BY RICHARD SYPHER
For The News Tribune
March 9, 2014
More than 44 years after his plane
was lost in combat during the Vietnam War, U.S.
Air Force Capt. Douglas David
Ferguson is coming home.
Remains of the Tacoma native, found in Laos several months ago,
have been positively
identified by the U.S. military Central Identification
Laboratory in Hawaii....
Capt. Douglas D. Ferguson, 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, USAF,
was lost on
30 December 1969 in Laos. He was accounted for on 5 March 2014. He
will be
buried with full military honors on 2 May 2014 in Lakewood, WA.
| IMMEDIATE RELEASE Fax: (703) 602-4375 April 25, 2014 Airman Missing From Vietnam War Accounted For The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. Air Force Capt. Douglas D. Ferguson, 24, of Tacoma, Wash., will be buried May 2, in Lakewood, Wash. On Dec. 30, 1969, Ferguson was on an armed reconnaissance mission when his F-4D Phantom II aircraft crashed in Houaphan Province, Laos. A U.S. forward air controller saw an explosion on the ground and interpreted it to be that of Ferguson’s aircraft. He reported seeing no survivors. Ferguson was carried as missing in action until a military review board later amended his status to presumed killed in action. Between 1994 and 1997, joint U.S./Lao People’s Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R.) teams conducted investigations of the crash site. U.S. aircraft wreckage and personal effects were found that confirmed this as the crash site of Ferguson’s F-4D. From October 2009 to April 2013, joint U.S./L.P.D.R. teams excavated the site three times and recovered human remains. In the identification of Ferguson, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as dental comparisons, which matched his records, and mitochondrial DNA, which matched Ferguson’s maternal line sister and nephew. Today there are 1,642 American service members that are still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1169.
|
May 3 2014
|
|
Subject:
Final Report on Burial of AF Capt Douglas Ferguson - 1965-1969 Buried at
Home on 5/2/14
Richard and All,
Yesterday was the funeral services for AF Capt Douglas D Ferguson whose remains were returned and laid to rest 44 years after he went down in Laos on a mission. This case was so special because his sister, Sue Scott has been a member as well as former Chairman of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia since shortly after her brother was lost in 1969. The organization was founded by Sybil Stockdale (wife of Vice Admiral James Stockdale who was a POW in North Vietnam for 7 1/2 years) and other POW/MIA wives in 1967. Sue has been extremely helpful in sending out all of my email about the film and other articles I sent out regarding the ongoing burials of POW/MIA in the US. She has probably sent out information about Richard and the film to thousands of people...all very interested in the POW/MAI issues in America. I have sent her messages about how happy we all were to have heard that, finally, that her brother was brought home...this has brought her true closure to a very personal story that has been on her mind for over 44 years. Here is a link to the National League if anyone wants to learn more about their good works...they were the first to speak up and force, then President Nixon to tell the world about the allegations of brutal torture that was taking place in North Vietnam POW Camps Here is the Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_League_of_Families I have attached the complete list of news articles about Capt Ferguson’s funeral and the family’s reactions and I have sent response emails encouraging the reporters to do a follow-up story on the film “A Solemn Promise, America’s Missing in Action” . Finally, if anyone wants to comment on Capt Ferguson’s return after 44 years you can do so at the following links that the family has provided for people to leave their comments. I encourage you to do so for the family. Please send condolences or comments to the family of Capt Douglas D Ferguson at this link: http://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/tribnet/douglas-ferguson-condolences/170818409?eid=sp_gbupdate#sthash.PDyF5rhF.dpbs This is a special Tribute page set up by the family http://www.forevermissed.com/douglas-david-ferguson/#about Best to All Bill |
01/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000oosBoEAI
CAPT DOUGLAS DAVID FERGUSON
On March 5, 2014, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC,
now DPAA) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL)
identified the remains of Captain Douglas David Ferguson,
missing from the Vietnam War.
Captain Ferguson entered the U.S. Air Force from Washington and
was a member of the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On December
30, 1969, he piloted an F-4D Phantom II (tail number 66-7590,
call sign "Laredo 03") that took off from Udorn Airfield,
Thailand, on an armed reconnaissance mission over the Plain of
Jars, Laos. During the mission, the Phantom was hit by enemy
fire and crashed in Houaphan Province, Laos, killing Capt
Ferguson. His remains could not be recovered at the time. The
crash site was discovered after the war, and in April 2013,
modern forensic technology was able to identify Capt Ferguson
from remains recovered there.
Captain Ferguson is memorialized in 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.