WINTERS, DARRYL GORDON

Name: Darryl Gordon Winters
Rank/Branch: E3/US Air Force
Unit: 600th Photo Squadron
Date of Birth: 06 March 1939
Home City of Record: San Francisco CA
Date of Loss: 19 July 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 104125N 10624306E (XS535780)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F100F
Refno: 0397
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1991 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.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: The North American F100 "Super Sabre" first saw action in
Southeast Asia in northwest Laos in May 1962. Various modifications were
made to the aircraft affectionately called "Hun" or "Lead Sled" by its
pilots and mechanics over the early years, and the aircraft served a variety
of functions.

Airman 1st Class Darryl G. Winters was assigned to the 600th Photo Squadron
in Vietnam. On July 19, 1966, he was assigned to photograph a combat mission
and flew in one of the F100s assigned an interdiction mission.

When the F100 on which Winters was a passenger was making a strafing pass
over a target in Long An Province near the city of Tan An, it was hit by
hostile ground fire and crashed just short of the target area. Winters is
believed to have been killed in the crash of the aircraft, but there is no
indication of the fate of the pilot in Air Force summaries of Winters' loss
incident.

Winters is listed among the missing because his remains were never
recovered. Others who are missing do not have such clear-cut cases. Some
were known captives; some were photographed as they were led by their
guards. Some were in radio contact with search teams, while others simply
disappeared.

Since the war ended, over 250,000 interviews have been conducted with those
who claim to know about Americans still alive in Southeast Asia, and several
million documents have been studied. U.S. Government experts cannot seem to
agree whether Americans are there alive or not. Detractors say it would be
far too politically difficult to bring the men they believe to be alive
home, and the U.S. is content to negotiate for remains.

Well over 1000 first-hand, eye-witness reports of American prisoners still
alive in Southeast Asia have been received by 1990. Most of them are still
classified. If, as the U.S. seems to believe, the men are all dead, why the
secrecy after so many years? If the men are alive, why are they not home?


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02/2020

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000001UHsEAM

A1C DARRYL GORDON WINTERS

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On July 19, 1966, a F-100F Super Sabre (tail number 58-1217) with two crew members took part in a three-plane combat support mission near Tan An, Long An Province, South Vietnam. While making a pass over the target area, the Super Sabre was hit by hostile ground fire. Witnesses in another aircraft on the mission reported that the Super Sabre crashed and exploded near the target area, and no parachutes emerged before it hit the ground. Neither crew member was located by searches conducted after the incident. Following the end of hostilities, the remains of the Super Sabre’s pilot were identified and returned to U.S. custody; however, the other crew member is still unaccounted for.

Airman Second Class Darryl Gordon Winters, who joined the U.S. Air Force from California, was a member of Detachment 6, 600th Photographic Squadron. He was the photographer aboard the Super Sabre when it went down, and was lost with the aircraft. His remains were never recovered. After the incident, the Air Force promoted A2C Winters to the rank of Airman First Class (A1C). Today, Airman First Class Winters is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual's case to be in the analytical category of Active Pursuit.

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