Davis, Edgar Felton

Name: Edgar Felton Davis
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 11th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Udorn Airfield, Thailand
Date of Birth: 15 December 1935
Home City of Record: Goldsboro NC
Date of Loss: 17 September 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 162900N 1061500E (XD380370)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: RF4C
Refno: 1279
Other Personnel in Incident: (pilot rescued)

Source: Compiled 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 in 1998.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: The RF4C was a modification of the McDonnell Douglas Phantom II
fighter/bomber jet used extensively in Southeast Asia. The RF4C was equipped
with photographic and electronic detection equipment and used for
reconnaissance. Inherent hazards were the twin vapor trails enabling the
craft to be seen from a distance, and ejecting photo flash cartridges, which
gave necessary light, but also signaled the position of the aircraft.

Ed Davis was the "back seater" on such an aircraft when it was shot down
during an operational mission about 15 miles south of the city of Sepone in
Savannakhet Province, Laos on September 17, 1968. The pilot of the aircraft
ejected successfully and was subsequently rescued, but Davis was not
located.

Ed Davis had special electronic training that made him particularly valuable
to the Air Force. It also made him potentially valuable to the enemy.
Statistical research shows that in similar flight teams, the survival and
release rate of the pilots far exceeds that of their specially trained
back seaters. It is thought that many of these men were captured and held
beyond the end of the war for their technical ability, and that some were
transferred to other countries, such as the Soviet Union in trade for
enormous war debts. Certain U.S. Government analysts called these men "MB"
or "Moscow Bound".

Whether Ed Davis survived to be captured and saved for his technical ability
is not known. He is one of nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos who never
returned. Although the Pathet Lao stated on several occasions that they held
American POWs, they insisted that the U.S. deal directly with them for their
release. The U.S. has never negotiated with the Pathet Lao for the freedom
of Americans held there.


 

Sources:
The POW Network, Hobson's "Vietnam Air Losses", The Virtual Wall, and the US DoD POW/MIA Office.