THE WALL OF FACES

Lee Benson and I shared an ordnance office on the USS Yorktown, CVS-10, right below the flight deck. Lee was a really nice person with a great personality and was highly thought of by everyone who knew him. The day he was lost, 17 March 1968, I had walked up to the flight deck with him and watched his plane launch. It was foggy and overcast and he was flying with his commanding officer along the coast of North Vietnam. His airplane from VS-23 (BuNo149274) disappered suddenly. No wreckage was ever found. This has been listed as an operational loss instead of a combat loss.
I find it hard to believe that his commanding officer who was the pilot, with years of experience flew the airplane into the water in the fog. It is possible that they were investigating a fishing boat and that his airplane was hit by a surface to air missle. He has been remembered all these years for the great person and fine Naval Aviator that he was. And I've always wondered why so many really great men had to die in vain.
Dean Ab-Hugh CWO-3 USN RET.

(photo from page 5, Parade Magazine, May 30, 1993,
MIA FAMILIES WON'T GIVE UP, by AL SANTOLI )