Andy Saunders - Finding the Fallen: Outstanding Aircrew Mysteries from the First World War to Desert Storm Investigated and Solved

Dedication
To Lt Ralph Eugene Foulks Jr US Navy
Lost over Vietnam 5 January 1968

Published by
Grub Street Publishing
4 Rainham Close
London
SW11 6SS

Copyright Grub Street 2011
Copyright text Andy Saunders 2011

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Saunders, Andy.

Finding the fallen : outstanding aircrew mysteries from the
First World War to Desert Storm investigated and solved.
1. Missing in actionCase studies. 2. AirmenBiography.
3. Aircraft accidentsInvestigation--History20th century.
I. Title
358.4'1338'0922-dc22
ISBN-13: 9781908117106
ePUB ISBN: 9781909166462

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M ANY FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES have greatly assisted me in writing this book. Without them, it is certainly the case that this account detailing various stories behind missing aircrew lost on operations in various conflicts would have been rather more difficult to put together.

I should like to thank, in no particular order of merit: Winston Ramsey, Martin OBrien, Steve Hall, Ian Hutton, Arnaud Gillet, Martin Mace, Colleen Ijuin, Simon Parry, Chris Goss, Richard Allen, Marjorie Allen, Dirk Decuypere, Gordon Leith, Gerald Oury, Philippa Hodgkiss, Gerry Burke, Cynrik De Decker, Jill Craig, Don Bryans, Dave Stubley, Norman Franks, Emmanuel Bril, Dick Walker, Barry Hammerton, Sue Raftree, Amanda Berry, Terry Thompson, Larry Hickey, Richard Lyon, Peter Cornwell, Ruth Bloom, Geoff Carless, Joe Bamford, Melvin Brownless, Jiri Rajlich, Janet Lacroix, Dale Wait, Robyn Saunders, David Hinton, Peter Hess, Fred Hagan, Ken Rimmel, Walter Mankelow, Air Cdre Mulder, Jan Gnodde, Dick van Polen and Lt Col Erik Rab.

I must also add a special thank you to Richard Lyon who allowed me to quote extensively from his own research material that he used in the Wikipedia page he has set up for his uncle, Russell Lyon.

An equally special thank you must also go to Michael Rank for allowing me to quote from his work regarding Flt Lt Hinton.

Once more I must also thank John Davies and his team at Grub Street, including Emer Hogan, Sophie Campbell and Sarah Driver. I look forward to working with you all again.

Last, but by no means least, a big thank you to Zoe who has again put up with my absence whilst I was shut away in my study to prepare this manuscript. Your support and understanding has, as ever, gone above and beyond the call of duty!

If I have overlooked anyone who has had an input to this book then I extend to them my sincerest apologies. It will have been an entirely unintentional oversight on my part. Thank you again one and all.

T WENTY-FIVE YEARS TO the day after he was lost, my brother, Lt Ralph Foulks of the US Navy, finally came home from Vietnam.

Our lives changed forever on 5 January 1968 when Ralphs plane was shot down, but our destinies took another twist on 5 January 1993 when the US Navy informed us that Ralphs remains had been positively identified and that he was now home. We never knew what had happened to him. Life went through phases during those many years. Until the war ended there was always the possibility that Ralph Skip to his buddies but always Bubby to me was alive. Even after the war was over, and the POWs came home, there were countless times when we said what if? when bits of news or movies would come out suggesting that POWs remained hidden in remote areas of Vietnam. That phase seemed to go on forever. Until he came home we never knew, but we always hoped there was some chance that he was alive, far-fetched as that idea may have been.

Colleen Ijuins favourite photo of her and her brother Ralph. One of the last times she saw him.

For many families the military knocking on the door had a sad finality and they knew their loved ones were dead. But for the families of those missing in action the haunting began. We carefully packed Red Cross POW care packages, diligently following the guidelines of what could be enclosed along with his favourite candy. It was as if the better the box was packed then the surer we would be that he got it. It was always painful to have the box come back marked undeliverable. At the holiday season the Red Cross films of POW camps had us glued to the TV hoping that we would see Ralph and that the returned care packages were just a terrible mistake. I remember a letter from Ralphs wife saying she was sure she had seen him. Ralph had married just two months before deploying.

A typical all-American scene. Ralph Foulks, with Colleen (the youngest) and his other sister Debbie on the trolley.

From the time Ralph went missing I replayed the scenes of our times together over and over in my mind, trying to keep him alive. During the years of having a loved one missing in action the recollections take on a greater-than-life importance and your very existence becomes just a period of endurance. Ralphs life was but one, and as deep as that hole was in our lives there were hundreds, if not thousands, of other families enduring the same. Im sure the recollections are played over and over again in thousands of minds. Until the day they come home. And then a new phase begins.

Now, we can take flowers to Ralphs grave in Barrancas National Cemetery. We know that he is dead and although we still dont know the details of what happened to Skip we have him home. For the families who never have that new phase beginning it must be like torture if I think about it now. To have a loved one missing in action means you never give up hope. You just endure.

Having those who were found remembered in this book helps sustain those who bear that loss, and having them come home helps to heal. As you read here about those who were lost, including some who are still lost, the fact that the reader sees their names and remembers them brings a great deal of comfort to those left behind. I am so grateful to Andy Saunders for bringing back the missing as well as bringing them back from being forgotten. Each face here represents so many who still need to be remembered and found.