Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs:
Smith 324 Compelling Cases - China
 
 
Senator SMITH's 324 Compelling Cases

CHINA

William A. Glasson, Jr.
Larry M. Jordan
Reuben B. Harris
(0299)

On April 12, 1966, there were four crewmen on board a KA-38 on a 700 mile over water flight from Cubi Point, Republic of the Philippines to the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk in the Gulf of Tonkin. The flight duration was to be one hour and fifty minutes. The aircraft never reached its destination and the crew were declared missing. A search and rescue mission failed to locate any evidence of either the aircraft or its crew. Returning U.S. military detainees captured during the war and held by China had no information that any of the crew survived into captivity.

The 7th Air Force received an intelligence report that People's Republic of China forces had shot down an aircraft at 1345 hours on the day the four KA-38 crewmen were lost. U.S. Naval intelligence obtained a copy of a television film broadcast by Beijing Television which showed the wreckage of a U.S. aircraft and the helmet of the bombardier/navigator. Lieutenant JG Jordan was the bombardier/navigator. The aircraft reportedly crashed on the Leichow Peninsula in Guangdong Province.

On April 12, 1975, the People's Republic of China acknowledged it had the remains of one of the crewmen, PR2 Kenneth W. Pugh but no information about the other crewmen. China returned two sets of remains to American Red Cross representatives in Hong Kong on April 15, 1975. One set of remains was identified as Kenneth W. Pugh. In March 1976, the Joint Casualty Resolution Center took action leading to a change in loss location from over water to lost over China.

In a June 1980 letter to Congressman Ben Gillman, the People's Republic of China stated that Harris and Jordan had died but Harris' remains were lost at sea and Chinese officials were unable to locate Jordan's remains. The Chinese had no information on Glasson's fate.