Name: Kurt Casey McDonald
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 336th Tactical Fighter Squadron
Date of Birth: 19 August 1934 (Salt Lake City UT)
Home City of Record: Bellevue WA
Loss Date: 31 December 1964
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 160631N 1075320E (ZC090830)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: O1F
Refno: 0051
Source: Compiled 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 in 1998.
Other Personnel In Incident: George B. Mundis (on another O1, not missing); Edward R. Dodge (missing)
REMARKS: LAST SEEN TURNING AC IN VALLEY
SYNOPSIS: SFC Edward Dodge was based at Da Nang with Detachment C-1 of the 5th Special Forces Group. On December 31, 1964, Dodge served as observer on an O1F aircraft flown by U.S. Air Force Capt. Kurt C. McDonald. Dodge and McDonald were one of two O1's launched that day on similar flight paths. The other aircraft was flown by WO1 George B. Mundis.
The two aircraft took off at about 0815 hours in marginal weather
conditions. Their flight would take them to Camp A Shau, a Special Forces
camp in the lower end of the A Shau Valley garrisoned by Detachment A-102. McDonald's flight was intended for a delivery to the camp.
Camp A Shau was a triangular shaped camp located in triple canopy jungle,
and surrounded by elephant grass twice as high as a man. In just over a
year from the day Dodge and McDonald were due to fly over the camp, it would be overrun by the enemy.
Mundis and McDonald flew together until they reached Hill 3350, whereupon both aircraft made a 180 degree turn. WO1 Mundis lost sight of McDonald's plane, which entered some bad weather, with clouds completely obscuring the ridge to the north and extending down to make a ragged roof above the triple canopy jungle. Mundis never saw the aircraft again.
Although returned POWs did not see Dodge or McDonald in captivity, one
source selected the photographs of both men as those who were held captive by the communists in Southeast Asia.
Studies of declassified documents indicate that there was more than one POW prison "system" in place during the Vietnam war, and that POWs tended to be moved within one "system" with the same prisoners. It appears possible that a number of prisoners were held without the knowledge of other prisoners.
Refugees fleeing Southeast Asia have come with reports of Americans still
held in captivity. There are many such reports that withstand the closest
scrutiny the U.S. Government can give, yet official policy admits only to
the "possibility" that Americans remain as captives in Southeast Asia.
