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 1998. 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?