THE WALL OF FACES

On the night of January 7, 1968, a U.S. Air Force McDonnell Douglas RF-4C Phantom II (#65-0913), call sign Sage 93, from the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, departed Tan Son Nhut Air Base for a night photographic mission in the Dak To area of Kontum Province, RVN. Radar and radio contact was maintained with the aircraft until it reached the Dak To area. After descending into the target area, contact was lost. A visual and electronic search of the area the next morning produced negative results and the two crewmen, CAPT Hallie W. Smith and 1LT Charles L. Bifolchi, were classed as missing. During the same time, a U.S Army maneuver battalion from 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division in a night defensive position approximately eighteen miles northeast of Dak To, reported an explosion in the overnight period. At 7:00 AM, a visual reconnaissance conducted by a U.S. Army gunship located the wreckage of the Phantom on the side of a ridge at about 7200 feet. A pararescue member from Pleiku Air Base was lowered to the crashed jet. No bodies or parachutes were sighted. A small piece of wreckage was recovered and determined to be part of an external wing similar to F/RF-4 aircraft. Search efforts continued for four days; however, enemy activity in the area combined with the steep terrain and high winds at the crash site precluded the recovery of the crewmen. Ground recovery was assigned to a U.S. Army long-range reconnaissance patrol from a Dak To Special Forces camp. They located aircraft debris but no remains were found. Both crewmen were promoted to Major during the time they were missing. Between 1993 and 2000, U.S. and Socialist Republic of Vietnam teams conducted two surveys of an area that was believed to be the crash site. One team interviewed two Vietnamese citizens who turned over human remains they claimed to have recovered at the site. Another team found wreckage consistent with the aircraft. In 2006, the remains were positively identified as Bifolchi’s; however, Smith is still carried as missing. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, virtualwall.org, and “Operational Report - Lessons Learned 4th Infantry Division, for Quarterly Period Ending 31 January 1968” at cacti35th.com]

Information about former MIA Major Charles Lawrence Bifolchi, USAF, from the POW Network website is at this link:

https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/b/b024.htm

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. I am relieved you were finally returned home. May you rest in eternal peace.

I was a young 1st Lt who served with Chuck in Vietnam. As I recall he was the first navigator in our squadron (16th TRS). He and I flew together many times and he was a super navigator in the RF-4C. At the end of a combat mission he loved to direct me over the ocean waters and he would photograph a ship in one frame of our cameras - not an easy task since he could not see the ship except on radar.
Chuck and I went on R&R together to Bangkok, Thailand in 1967 and we also made several motorcycle trips around Saigon together. Great friend who I will never forget.

Major Charles Lawrence Bifolchi, Served with the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 460th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 7th Air Force.