Name: Arthur
Gene Ecklund
Other Personnel in Incident: Perry H. Jefferson (missing)
Rank/Branch: O2/US Army
Unit: 183rd Aviation Company, 223rd Aviation Battalion, 17th
Aviation Group,
1st Aviation Brigade
Date of Birth: 05 May 1943 (Galesburg IL)
Home City of Record: Phoenix AZ
Date of Loss: 03 April 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 115111N 1085848E (BP750005)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: O1G
Refno: 1422
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II
Project 01 July 1990 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by
the P.O.W.
NETWORK 1998.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: Arthur Gene Ecklund was born in Galesburg, Illinois and
lived
there until he was ten years old when his family moved to Phoenix,
Arizona.
He graduated from Central High School there and attended Phoenix
College and
Arizona State University.
Artie entered the Army in September 1966 and took his basic
training at Ft.
Bliss, Texas. He was chosen for Officers Candidate School and was
commissioned at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. He took helicopter training,
then
attended fixed wing pilot training, and was deployed to Vietnam
shortly after.
On April 3, 1969, U.S. Army 1Lt. Arthur G. Ecklund and his U.S.
Air Force
observer, Capt. Perry H. Jefferson, were flying a visual
reconnaissance
mission out of Phan Rang airbase. They left the base at 0700
hours in an O1G
aircraft (serial #51-12078) and reported in by radio at 0730
hours giving
their location, destination and information concerning a convoy
they were
going to check out. No further communication was heard, except
for a signal
"beeper".
Extensive search efforts began at 0950 hours with all available
aircraft,
and continued for three days without success. The aircraft is
believed to
have occurred in an area occupied by enemy forces, thus
preventing a ground search.
On April 15, 1969, a Vietnamese source reported that he had been
in contact
with a communist Montagnard who claimed the Viet Cong had shot
down an
aircraft with two Americans in it, and the Americans had been
wounded, but
were alive, and being held in captivity. He said the aircraft was
shot down
between Phan Rang and Cam Ranh City. A later report indicated
that two men
fitting the description of Ecklund and Jefferson were seen on a
trail being
guarded by Viet Cong, and that they appeared to be in good health.
The U.S. Defense Department list Jefferson's loss coordinates
near the
coastline of Vietnam, about 20 miles south of Cam Ranh, while
Ecklund's loss
coordinates are listed about 10 miles southwest of Cam Ranh and
about 15
miles northwest of those of Jefferson. Both men are listed as
lost in Ninh
Thuan Province, South Vietnam.
The presence of the reports of captivity and the emergency radio
"beeper"
lends weight to the fact that the two men were captured. There
can be no
question that the Vietnamese know the fate of two men. As reports
concerning
Americans still alive in Southeast Asia continue to flow in, it
becomes
increasingly more important to find out what happened to the men
we left
behind
Name | ECKLUND, ARTHUR G |
Reference Number | 1422-0-01 |
Date | 690403 |
Rank | O2 |
Status | XX |
Country | VS/ |
Service | A |
Return Date | |
Race | C |
Coordinates (Latitude/Longitude) | 115111N1085848E |
Aircraft/Vehicle Type | O1G |
All Biographical and loss
information on Vietnam Era POW/MIA's
provided by
Operation Just Cause have been supplied by Chuck and Mary
Schantag of
POW/NET
"Please check with POW/NET
regularly for
updates."