THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. I am heartened you returned home after the passage of so many years though I wish it had been under very different circumstances. May you rest in eternal peace.

Dear PO3C Gale Siow, Thank you for your service as an Aviation Tech 3rd Class. Glad you were identified in 2003. Welcome Home. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Happy Presidents' Day. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

ATN3 Gale Robert Siow is buried in Section 60, site 8140 of the Arlington National Cemetery.

Your sacrifice is not forgotten.

Welcome Home

Gale Siow, You are remembered. Hopi Warrior.

On January 11, 1968, a U.S. Navy OP-2E Neptune aircraft (#131436) from Observation Squadron 67 (VO-67), a squadron that operated secretly out of an airbase in Thailand, was one of three planes dispatched on an Acoubuoy drop mission over Laos. The Neptune aircraft was designed to drop electronic sensors to detect truck movements along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Carrying a crew of nine, radio and radar contact with the aircraft was lost at 9:57 AM. It was reported by one of the other pilots that the last words of lost aircraft's mission commander were simply, "I'm going down through this hole in the clouds." An extensive visual, electronic, and photographic search was conducted in the area of the aircraft's last known position. The lost crewmen included LTJG Denis L. Anderson, LTJG Arthur C. Buck, AE2 Richard M. Mancini, CDR Delbert A. Olson, AO2 Michael L. Roberts, ATN3 Gale R. Siow, LTJG Philip P. Stevens, ADJ2 Donald N. Thoreson, and PH2 Kenneth H. Widon. The crew's mascot, a bull terrier named Snoopy, was also killed. On January 23rd, a USAF A-1 Skyraider located a suspected crash site. On January 25th, an USAF O-2 Skymaster from the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron photographed the site. Using the photographs for photo interpretation, and in conjunction with visual air reconnaissance of the site, it was determined that the wreckage was that of the lost Neptune aircraft. The plane had crashed on the northern side of a sheer cliff, 150 feet below the 4583-foot summit line of Phou Louang mountain, about nine miles northeast of Ban Nalouangnua, Khammouane Province, Laos. It was decided that all indications were that there were no survivors and most probably no identifiable remains. Because of the heavy jungle canopy, irregular terrain, and the close proximity of enemy forces, no ground team was inserted to inspect the crash site for remains. There was no indication as to the exact cause of the crash. All members of the crew were placed in an initial casualty status of Missing in Action, later changed to Presumed Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered. Thirty-three years later, in an operation utilizing U.S. Army mountaineers, the crash was excavated and remains were recovered and repatriated on July 10, 2001. They were positively identified on May 20, 2003. A group burial took place at Arlington National Cemetery. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, pownetwork.org, and vo-67.org]