21 Aug 1999

As are all CHARLIE is very special.

But CHARLIE is really a very special person to me. I was asked by a personal friend to please put a page up honoring CHARLIE. He was a dear childhood friend to my friend. They spent most of their growing up years from childhood into their teens together. Even joining the service was a joint adventure for them. When it was time for each to take leave, they managed to take leave at the same time. While on leave, as much time as possible was spent together. They were as close as brothers if not closer. The last leave before their ETS (estimated time of separation) my friend came home on leave but CHARLIE was not there. He asked his mother, and CHARLIE's mother, if CHARLIE was home yet. His inquiring only received the answer of "NO, CHARLIE ISN'T HOME". My friend ETSed, and still no CHARLIE. After asking again if CHARLIE was home the only reply was "NO". One month after leaving the service he was told by his mother "CHARLIE isn't coming home. He didn't make it". CHARLIE's spirit lives on in the heart and home of his dear friend.

**From one who remembers, Luella Gale

**

Mission Notes

NVA and VC elements in South Vietnam were absolutely dependent on men and materiel transported down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos … if these supplies could be cut off, the enemy forces in South Vietnam would wither in place. Accordingly, the Trail was of considerable interest throughout the war. One method of intelligence gathering involved the emplacement of acoustic and seismic sensors along the trail; these sensors transmitted data by radio to a processing facility at Nakon Phanom RTAFB in Thailand, where the "take" was used to direct strike missions.

Navy Observation Squadron 67 (VO-67) was formed to provide a highly accurate method of delivering the sensors. VO-67 flew modified SP-2E Neptune aircraft, designated the OP-2E, and took up residence at Nakon Phanom in November 1967. VO-67's first loss occurred on 11 January 1968, when OP-2E BuNo 131436 failed to return from a sensor seeding mission conducted in Laos during a period of bad weather. Since search-and-rescue operations failed to locate either aircraft or crew, the crewmen were classed as Missing in Action. On 23 January a USAF A-1 pilot spotted aircraft wreckage on a mountainside near Ban Napoung. An O-2 from the 23rd TASS took handheld photography of the crash site, which was on a sheer cliffside about 200 feet below the top of a 4600' peak. Topography and enemy presence made a ground search impractical, but it was determined that the aircraft was indeed the missing OP-2E and that the crash was not survivable. On 23 Feb 1968 the crew's status was changed from MIA to Killed in Action, Body not Recovered. The crew consisted of

CDR Delbert Austin Olson, pilot LTJG Denis Leon Anderson, copilot
LTJG Arthur Charles Buck, navigator
LTJG Philip Paul Stevens, copilot
Aviation Electrician 2nd Class Richard Michael Mancini
Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Michael Land Roberts
Aviation Machinist's Mate 2nd Class Donald Nellis Thoresen
Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Kenneth Harry Widon
Aviation Electronics Technician 3rd Class Gale Robert Siow
In addition to the nine men, the squadron's mascot, a small dog named Snoopy, was aboard the aircraft.

So matters stood for some 25 years. Beginning in 1993, JTFFA teams attempted to locate and excavate the wreckage. After three failures, a fourth team located the wreckage in 1996 and retrieved human remains, two dogtags, and one ID card. Additional excavations were carried out in March 2001 and February/March 2002; these excavations recovered additional remains. Although a large proportion of the remains could not be individually identified, there were identifiable remains from each of the nine men. Three bone fragments came from a small-to-medium-sized domestic dog … Snoopy too had come home.

In early May 2003 LTJG Arthur "Charlie" Buck's remains were taken to the Gerner-Wolf-Brossia Marsh Funeral Home, 216 Washington St, Port Clinton, Ohio, for burial.

Arthur Charles Buck