GLANDON, GARY ALVEN
Name: Gary Alven Glandon
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit: (Unknown per USAF)
Date of Birth: 17 April 1940
Home City of Record: Powell, TN
Date of Loss: 26 May 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 135342N 1991442E (CR104367)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4C
Ref no: 0346
Other Personnel in Incident: Terrance H. Griffey (missing)Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 1990 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 2002.
REMARKS/SYNOPSIS: 1Lt. Terrance H. Griffey was the pilot and 1Lt. Gary A. Glandon his weapons systems officer on an F4C Phantom sent on a bombing mission on May 26, 1966. The aircraft was number two in a flight of three. After making the bombing run over the target, Griffey's aircraft was observed to burst into flames and explode. The aircraft burned in the air, impacted the ground and disintegrated into small pieces.
The location of the crash was on the coast of South Vietnam about 10 miles Northeast of the city of Qui Nhon in Binh Dinh Province. Both men were thought to have been killed and to have gone down with the aircraft. These two young officers were among the nearly 3000 Americans who were missing, prisoner, or otherwise unaccounted for at the end of the Vietnam war.
Griffey, 25, who had excelled in football at the Air Force Academy which he graduated from in 1962. Glandon, a native Tennessean, had just turned 26. They are among roughly 58,000 men who died in Vietnam -- men who become statistics from the sheer enormity of the numbers. Since American involvement in Vietnam ended in 1975, nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing, prisoner, or otherwise unaccounted for in Indochina have been received by the U.S. Government. Many officials, having examined this largely classified information, have reluctantly concluded that many Americans are still alive today, held captive by our long-ago enemy.
Griffey and Glandon apparently did not survive the crash of their aircraft to be captured, and cannot be among those thought to be still alive today. What is certain, however, is that as long as even one American remains alive, held against his will, we owe him our very best efforts to bring him to freedom.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
Panel 07E-Line 110
Personal Comments Submitted by
Les Alford
les_alford@habitat.org
He was my best friend
60376 Arnold Loop
Bend, OR97702 USA
Gary, I still miss you
I was Gary's wingman on the day his F-4 went down. We were dropping napalm on VC from very low altitude (50-100') when he presumably took a hit from small arms fire. Usually fighter aircraft burn for quite a while after a hit is taken, but Gary's simply exploded. There was no chance for him to bail out. Gary and I went through pilot training together in Del Rio Texas in 1964, then to Tucson for F-4 school, on to Holloman AFB, NM where we were part of the 391st TFS. In January of 1966 we deployed to Cam Ranh AB, RVN where our squadron joined the 12th TFW. (Incidentally, the bio of Gary shows his combat tour beginning on May 26th, the day that he died, but it actually was January 31st, the day that we arrived in Viet Nam). Gary's was the first death that I witnessed in my two years of flying combat. Unfortunately, it would not be the last. I still think of him though, and wonder why it was he who died and not me.
Sunday, April 02, 2000
