WILLIAM JOOR MORGAN
.
.
MAJ - Army - Regular
Rank/Branch: O4/US Army
Unit: MACV, Artillery Division
MACV Advisors
34 year old Married, Caucasian,
Male
Date of Birth: 11 February 1938
Home City of Record: BATON ROUGE,
LOUISIANA
His tour of duty began on Feb
25, 1972
Date of Loss: 25 February 1972
Country of Loss: QUANG NAM,
SOUTH VIETNAM/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 160745N 1081701E
(BT008901)
Non-Hostile, died missing
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body
Not Recovered
HELICOPTER - NONCREW
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1H
Refno: 1799
Religion
METHODIST
Panel 02W - - Line 111
Other Personnel in Incident:
(none missing)
Category: 5
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.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS:
William J. Morgan was a passenger aboard a UH1H helicopter (tail
#69-15391) that crashed in the
Da Nang Harbor on February 25, 1972. The
helicopter was recovered on
March 17, and all personnel aboard the aircraft
were accounted for except Maj.
Morgan. It was concluded that his body
drifted from the aircraft and
either out to sea or to the beaches of nearby
Mui Da Nang island. A further
search at the main harbor was not feasible,
and Maj. Morgan was listed as
dead, remains non-recoverable. No enemy action
is associated with the loss.
Search and recovery efforts in
Vietnam were the best and most successful
ever seen in wartime. They were
so successful, in fact, that the numbers of
those remaining missing in action
were dramatically reduced over previous
wars.
The unique thing about Vietnam
as compared to other wars, however, is that
not a great many cases are like
that of Maj. Morgan. Most of the missing
could be readily accounted for
by either the governments of Southeast Asia,
who kept incredibly detailed
records of each prisoner and downed aircraft
lost, or by on-site inspection
and/or excavation of loss sites.
Approximately 1/2 of the nearly
2500 now listed as missing could be
accounted for with access to
information held by our former enemies or
access to loss sites. Included
in this number are hundreds of individuals
who were known to have been
captives, or were alive when last seen.
The other approximate half of
those missing were originally classified as
killed, body not recovered.
In light of discrepancies, however, at least
several score of these cases
need further examination. For example, one
"KIA/BNR" individual was known
to have safely parachuted from his aircraft.
Another group of individuals
were horribly mutilated by the enemy, and their
bodies (and equipment) disappeared
before they could be extracted.
The most troubling aspect of
the missing in Vietnam remains the "several
million" documents and "over
250,000" reports received by the U.S.
Government relating to Americans
missing in Southeast Asia. Many U.S.
authorities are convinced that
hundreds of Americans remain alive today,
held against their will. While
it is improbable that Maj. Morgan is among
them, one must wonder what he
would think of his country abandoning its best
men to enemy hands.
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