THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service. I wore your pow mia bracelet for some years In the 1970s. RIP

Dear Captain Jefferson Dotson,
Thank you for your service as a Tactical Aircraft Pilot (Various.) I am glad you were identified in 2002. Welcome Home.
We remember all you who gave their all. It has been too long, and it's about time for us all to acknowledge the sacrifices of those like you who answered our nation's call. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

I wore your POW bracelet for many, many years starting in early Elementary school. I have your rubbing from the Wall in DC. Your name and heroism is embedded in my heart and on this day of remembrance, I am thinking of you. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. My heart goes out to your family. May God bless you and your family.

I had his name on my POW/MIA bracelet from 6th grade on. Often I would look on lists for his name, but no avail. Finally, I am learning so much more about him, but saddened to hear of his passing. At least the family has closure of sorts now.

In the early morning of August 9, 1969, 1LT Jefferson S. Dotson, pilot, and CAPT Lee Gourley, his rear-seat co-pilot, departed Tuy Hoa Airbase located on the coast of central South Vietnam on a "Misty" Forward Air Control (FAC) mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in central Laos. Lee Gourley had written home early that same day saying that all missions for that day had been scrubbed due to bad weather. He did not expect to have to fly that day - and he had time to write his family. Gourley had been working with Misty for some time as a volunteer. Misty FAC volunteers were chosen from among the best and most experienced pilots. He had delayed a trip to Hawaii for R & R until the Misty duties were complete in another week, knowing his time in the Vietnam arena would be short following his return. The FAC mission had come up unexpectedly. The aircraft Dotson and Gourley flew, the F-100 Super Sabre, had been specially modified a few years before to include a second crewman. The F model, introduced in 1965, had the latest technology in radar signal detectors. The initial shipment of F-100F's were called "Wild Weasel I" and were an important element in several combat operations. Gourley and Dotson were not on a Wild Weasel mission, however, and on the FAC mission this day, no bombs were loaded. They were to fly low and fast over their objective area and presumably analyze targets for future air strikes, or assess the potential need for further strikes. FAC reconnaissance missions in the traditional sense were often flown by light observation aircraft rather than fighter/bombers, but the necessary element for this mission was low altitude and high speed, as well as the ability to cover a large territory. Although there was normally no scheduled air backup or escort on a FAC mission, and Gourley and Jefferson had none, other aircraft which happened to be in the area provide information as to what happened to Dotson and Gourley as they flew near Sepone in Savannakhet Province, Laos. One passing aircraft intercepted a radio transmission from the F-100F, "We've been hit, we're going to try to get out." Observers from the passing aircraft then saw the F-100 go up in flames, and observed one fully deployed parachute. (NOTE: The standard ejection called for the rear-seater, Gourley, to make the first ejection, then the pilot, and a fully deployed chute indicated the successful ejection of a crew member.) Dotson and Gourley were classified Missing in Action. In December 2001 both their remains returned and the following August were positively identified. [Taken from pownetwork.org]