MSGT (ROLLIE) KEITH REAID, USAF
Received an e-mail from Keith's family, and I feel that out of respect for them and for Keith, I must make some necessary changes to this page. You see, Keith is not a POW/MIA, Keith is sheltered safely in the arms of the Lord.
I would like to share some more information that I received about Keith. It really shows just the type of person I knew he was all along:
"Keith was a wonderful person, and everyone that met him liked him. Keith was a Baptist preacher and very loyal to God and our Country."�
Enough said.....
"I remember Rollie (he went by Keith) as a good young gunner.� He was on my crew originally for his qualification training.� He was a hard worker and consciences.� After his training was complete, he moved to the other crew.� Keith was a good ole boy from Alabama.� His dream was to buy a Chevy Cheyenne pickup truck when his tour was over.� He was a good fellow."�
Heres something else that I found out in this e-mail.� This person was going through some old papers and came across a mass order for the award of the� Air Medal.� One of the guys on the list of names that was to receive theAir Medal was Rollie Keith Reaid (his first).� The date of the order was December 21, 1972,� the very date his plane was shot down ............................
If you are a friend, relative, or if you were with Keith in Thailand or Laos, please e-mail me (if you want to)!�� I'd like to have a picture of him to display on this tribute page and to learn more about him!
If you visit The Wall in Washington, D.C., stop for a moment look for his name (Rollie Keith Reaid), and say a little prayer for him and all the names on that wall. All of them made the ultimate sacrifice for you to have the freedom you do today.
Remains Recovered in Crash Site Excavation - Positive ID Accepted
Name: Rollie Keith Reaid
Rank/Branch: E-7/US Air Force
Unit: 16th Special Operations Squadron, Ubon AB, Thailand
Date of Birth: 23 December 1952
Home City of Record: Dora AL
Date of Loss: 21 December 1972
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 152712N 1060048E (XC087086)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: AC130A gunship
Other Personnel In Incident: George D. MacDonald; Thomas T. Hart III; John Winningham; Francis Walsh; James R. Fuller; Robert T. Elliott; Robert L. Liles; Harry Lagerwall; Paul Meder; Delma Dickens; Stanley Kroboth; Charles Fenter (all missing); Joel R. Birch (partial remains recovered); Richard Williams and Carl E. Stevens (rescued).
Source: "Task Force Omega" Inc. of Glendale, AZ,� raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
Remarks: I.R. #22370432 73 - DEAD
Synopsis:� The Lockheed AC130A Spectre gunship first made its trial appearance in Vietnam in late 1967. Because it was highly maneuverable at low speeds and could spend hours in an operational area while delivering a precisely placed stream of withering fire on a target, it immediately proved its worth in combat.� Within one year, all but 3 AC130A gunships were deployed to SEA.� Those 3 aircraft remained in the US to train additional aircrews.� The AC130A was armed with 2 M61 Vulcan cannons mounted in the first half of the fuselage and could deliver a stream of accurate fire from each gun at a rate of 100 shells per second.� It was usually used at half that rate to conserve ammunition.� A pair of 40mm Bofors cannons were mounted in the aft section that could deliver a steady stream of 300 rounds of ammunition per minute.� Some AC130s were armed with 105mm Howitzers mounted in place of the rear Bofors cannons.� This modification made the gunship an extremely affective tank killer.�
On 21 December 1972, the crew of a Lockheed AC130A gunship named "Thor", tail number 56-0490 and call sign "Spectre 17," departed Ubon, Thailand on an interdiction mission to interrupt enemy movement along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. Its crew of 16 was comprised of Capt. Harry R. Lagerwall, pilot;� Major Francis A. Walsh, Jr., fighter pilot who was listed as an additional crewman for this mission;� Capt. Stanley N. Kroboth, co-pilot;� Capt. Thomas T. Hart III, table navigator;� TSgt. James R. Fuller, flight engineer;� TSgt. Robert T. Elliott, aerial gunner;� A1C Charles F. Fenter, aerial gunner;� A1C Rollie K. Reaid, aerial gunner;� then 1st Lt. George D. MacDonald, sensor operator;� 1st Lt. Delma Dickens, sensor operator,� 1st Lt. Robert L. Liles, sensor operator;� Major Paul O. Meder, Infra-Red Sensor Operator;� TSgt. John Q. Winningham, illuminator operator;� TSgt. Carl E. Stevens, illuminator operator;� TSgt. Richard Williams, aerial gunner; and� Capt. Joel R. Birch, sensor operator.� With the exception of Major Walsh who was a member of the 497th Tactical Fighter Squadron, all members of this aircrew were assigned to the 16th Special Operations Squadron.� Both Squadrons were stationed at Ubon Airbase, Thailand.�
During the flight to the target, Spectre 17 inexplicably broke altitude descending to a lower level according to crewmen aboard other gunships taking part in the same mission, and was hit by enemy ground fire.� After evaluating the amount of battle damage sustained by Thor, the decision was made to attempt to return to base.� After 10 minutes of stable, level flight, fuel accumulated ankle deep in the cargo area igniting an explosion that severely damaged the aircraft, but did not cause it to disintegrate.
According to reports provided by other aircrews who monitored radio communications between the crew of Spectre 17, along with communications between aircraft, none of the 16 crewmen were injured by the ground fire that initially damaged the gunship.� The crewmen were preparing for a possible bailout by putting on their parachutes, and those men not necessary for flying it were moving to the rear of the aircraft.� The jump bell was heard over the headsets of those monitoring communications between the aircraft� 5 to 10 seconds before Spectre 17 exploded.� Further, once the men hit the ground, many emergency beepers were heard "going off all over the place."
TSgt. Richard Williams parachuted just before the explosion and TSgt. Carl E. Stevens did the same immediately afterward.� Both men evaded enemy patrols and were rescued hours later.� According to US intelligence reports that vary somewhat in content in as much as each gives bits and pieces of the story, once Carl Stevens and Richard Williams were rescued - and within 24 hours of the incident - the crash site was visited by either friendly indigenous forces and/or a US Search and Rescue (SAR) team who found and photographed 2 piles of bloody bandages and 5 deployed parachutes.�
The partial remains of Capt. Joel R. Birch, which consisted of part of one arm and hand, were recovered and these "remains" were later identified through fingerprints.� He was listed as Killed in Action/Body Recovered because of this positive identification.� Other than TSgt. Stevens and TSgt. Williams who were rescued, no other crewmen could be located.
Based on the physical examination of the crash site, Thor cut a path of destruction through jungle vegetation, which is consistent with a long, horizontal glide flight path to the jungle floor rather than a crater/hole in the jungle floor caused by a relatively vertical, rapid decent.� The crash occurred in the rugged jungle covered mountains just a few hundred meters from the village of Nong Song Hong, Champassak Province, Laos; approximately 13 miles due east of Xe Don Lou River, which empties into the Mekong River on the west side of the town of Pakse, some 25 miles southwest of the crash site.
In February 1985, a joint US/Lao excavation of the AC130A crash site was conducted.� A large number of small bone fragments and a few teeth, which had obviously been subjected to intense heat and with a total weight of 6 pounds, were found.� A 4 1/2 month examination of these bones and teeth resulted in the US Government's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CIL-HI) reporting the "positive identification" of remains for all 13 crewmembers still missing.� Reaid's identification had been made based on bits of upper arm and leg bones and a mangled POW bracelet that he wore.
As of today, I have a POW/MIA bracelet that has Keith's name on it.� I received� it in 1985 when I first joined the Air Force and I will do whatever his family wishes for me to do with it. If they would like to have it, I will gladly do whatever it takes to get it to them. Or if they do not wish for me to return it, then I will leave it sitting on my dresser where I can see it every morning when I awake, and every evening when I go to sleep.
You see, Keith is no longer a "Prisoner" of any war, he is free from this world of sin.
Keith is no longer "Missing", our Heavenly Father found him.
God bless his family, and thank you Keith, my "Wingnut" Brother.
In early 1973, a US satellite photographed the roughly 20-foot high numbers "1973" or "1573" and the initials "TH" stomped out in elephant grass some distance from the crash site.� No matter how the numbers and letters are examined, experts believe they can only be connected with the crew of Spectre 17, and almost certainly belong to Tom Hart.� For example: the internal call sign and name of that aircraft was THOR.� The only man aboard that aircraft with those initials was Tom Hart. The year was now 1973 when the signal was made and photographed.
From 1981 to 1984, President Reagan charged the Special Forces Detachment in Korea with the responsibility of collecting live POW information throughout Southeast Asia.� "SFDK" was commanded by Major Mark Smith, he himself a returned POW from the Vietnam War.� Through his efforts, and those of team Intelligence Sergeant Mel McIntire, an agent net of 50 agents was established, specifically in Laos.� The result of this intelligence net resulted in Major Smith compiling a list of some 26 American POWs by name and captivity location, with Thomas T. Hart III and George D. MacDonald being two of them.� SFDK collected information that indicated other members of this aircrew were also alive, although that data was not as conclusive as the information on Hart and MacDonald.�
In April 1984, Major Smith received a message from one of his agents specifying that on 11 May three US Prisoners of War would be brought to a given location on the Lao/Thai border.� The only prerequisite was that an American be on the Thailand side of the border to receive the men.� When this information was reported up his chain of command, Major Smith's team was ordered not to leave Korea, to destroy all documents pertaining to LIVE� POWs and they were sent back to the United States 6 months early.� This documented information was provided to the United States Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in sworn testimony on 28 January 1986.
In September 1982, 10 years after the crash, a private sector delegation of family members were allowed to visit the crash site unofficially.� They did not know ahead of time if they would be allowed to go to a crash site, or which one.� Ironically, Tom Hart's wife was part of this delegation.� This site is extremely difficult to reach unlike literally dozens of other crash sites in the immediate area.� Once there, they confirmed through first-hand observation the vegetation was visibly thinner than in the surrounding jungle consistent with a glide-path landing.� There was no crater which would be expected if the flight path had been steep.� There were two small depressions consistent with the location of the engines.� Between the 2 depressions was a shallow "trench-like depression" which was consistent with the aircraft fuselage.
Since the end of the Vietnam War well over 21,000 reports of American prisoners, missing and otherwise unaccounted for have been received by our government.� Many of these reports document LIVE American Prisoners of War remaining captive throughout Southeast Asia TODAY.� Pilots and aircrews were called upon to fly in many dangerous circumstances, and they were prepared to be wounded, killed or captured.� It probably never occurred to them that they could be abandoned by the country they so proudly served.
While the USG considers Tom Hart and George MacDonald, as well as James Fuller, to be "remains returned," their families do not.� They ask that Americans continue to wear their men's POW/MIA bracelets and help them fight for an honorable accounted of them.
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