THE WALL OF FACES

Thanks for your service and respecting your total commitment on behalf of our countries freedom. Grandson of Elizabeth (Sather) Jordahl

Never forgotten

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade Richard Christian Sather, from Pomona, California was a Unrestricted Line Officer (Pilot) assigned to Attack Squadron 145 (VA-145), Carrier Air Wing 14 (CVW-14), USS CONSTELLATION, Task Force 77, 7th Fleet. On August 5th, 1964, while piloting an A-1H Skyraider during an attack on North Vietnamese naval gunboats in the area north of Loc Chau Harbor, North Vietnam, LTJG Sather’s aircraft was stuck by enemy fire and crashed. No parachute was seen, and no emergency radio beepers were heard. It was generally agreed that LTJG Sather had died in the crash of his aircraft. He was declared Killed in Action and his body was not recovered until his remains were “discovered” by the Vietnamese and repatriated to U.S. control on August 14, 1985.

LTJG Sather’s flight of four aircraft and others were conducting retaliatory strikes against North Vietnamese vessels and installations ordered by President Lynden B. Johnson in response to the supposed attacks on the U.S. Navy destroyers U.S.S. MADDOX and TURNER JOY. These attacks precluded the passing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by only two days. This joint resolution of the United States Congress allowed President Johnson to wage war as he deemed necessary to defend South Vietnam.

LTJG Sather graduated in 1961 from the University of California Riverside with a degree in zoology. In November of that same year, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. LTJG Sather was single and 26-years old when he died. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

[Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, pownetwork.org and dailybulletin.com]

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously) to Lieutenant, Junior Grade Richard Christian Sather, United States Navy, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as Pilot of an aircraft in Attack Squadron ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FIVE (VA-145), aboard U.S.S. CONSTELLATION (CVA-64). Participating in a flight of four aircraft which located and was fired on by five major gunboats in an area north of Loc Chau, North Vietnam, Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Sather carried out three damaging attacks against two of the largest craft before his plane crashed into the water between them. He contributed materially to the success of his flight in inflicting severe damage on the gunboats.

General Orders: All Hands (March 1965)
Action Date: August 5, 1964
Service: Navy
Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade
Squadron: Attack Squadron 145 (VA-145)
Ship: U.S.S. Constellation (CVA-64)

Ltjg Richard Christian Sather has the sad distinction of being the first Navy Pilot to die in Vietnam.
Richard Sather was shot down on Aug. 5, 1964, two days before Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that allowed President Lyndon Johnson to wage war as he deemed necessary to defend South Vietnam.

Ltjg Richard Christian Sather was flying the first airstrike on Hanoi when he and LTjg Everett Alvarez were both shot down. Alvarez survived and held a dubious distinction as the first naval aviator POW and longest held (8.5 years) of the war. Dick Sather did not survive, and his remains were not returned to U.S. control until 1985, when he was identified at the Central Identification Lab Hawaii (CILHI).