The Missing T-28Ds Over Laos: Phone Conversation between President Johnson and Robert McNamara

In this video you will hear a phone recording, a conversation, from November 20, 1964, between President Lyndon Johnson and his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. This conversation I’ll play is about one minute in length; it was part of a longer conversation on a variety of topics. You will hear President Johnson ask McNamara about missing planes, and McNamara responds by explaining two T-28s were shot down over Laos. McNamara described, as you will hear, the military participants as “stupid, damn fools,” and explains to Johnson “the story we are putting out” regarding the incident, meaning, to explain it away. McNamara explains the cover story to be told, and neither Johnson nor McNamara mentions the pilots, their fate, whether missing, or alive, or any other detail. And frankly, I think that’s telling, not even a mention about the pilots’ condition.

I wanted to learn more about this event, who the pilots were who perished, what mission they were flying, and what happened to them. There is no record today that I could find, in newspaper reports or even in declassified air force reports, of the ultimate fate of these two missing US T-28s. Oddly enough, only through aircraft archaeology reports, and some detail written by former long time air America pilot dick casterlin in his monumental air America chronology, could I find missing information to tie this all together.

First, to fully understand the context of this event I’ll briefly explain how U.S. air operations changed in 1964 with a surge of operations over Laos. Second, I’ll mention a U.S. fighter that was shot down a day earlier in Laos, the 18th, which created a news event in the U.S. because the US was not supposed to be at war. Initially I thought it may have been this incident that Johnson and Macnamara were talking about as I could not find any info on the T-28 shoot downs. Third, I’ll play the recording, and finally I want to honor the four U.S. Air Force pilots who were shot down by providing you their names and pictures because to date I don’t think anyone has connected the dots on these events. It actually took a bit of investigation to tie this together.

In 1964, U.S. air operations surged over Laos, and why that happened is reflected in the changing war dynamic from Washington’s view. “Throughout 1964, a pattern of decision-making took form that would have profound influence on America's 1965 decisions for war. From the beginning of the year to the end, the Joint Chiefs peppered McNamara and Johnson with proposals for drastic escalation.

This video features an Air America H-34 crew, pilots Ed Reid and Bobby Nunez with Flight Mechanic who conducted a Search and Rescue of Captain WILLIAM REYNOLDS MARTIN.

The four missing T-28 pilots who were shot down and killed in action on November 19, 1964, were Major Otis Gordon Jr. (Flash), Captain Edwin Raymond Eason, Captain George H. Albrecht, and 1st Lt. Leonard Hudson.

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