24 January 2008
Details on Hunter’s Last Mission
I returned from Maxwell Air Force Base last evening, spending most of the day looking at every piece of unclassified documents that I could find regarding Lt. Hunter and MSgt Charlie Jones. The results were mixed since some of the unclassified material still could not be looked at because it had a privileged status - meaning I did not have security clearance to view the material.
However, I was able to access the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing history for 1966, covering the time that Lt. Hunter was stationed there for the few months he was in country. According to the documents, Lt. Hunter arrived at the Takhli, Thailand in March of 1966, which supports previous documents collected that state Lt. Hunter arrived on base on 20 March 1966.
The unit history also suggests that Lt. Hunter would have likely participated in missions for Operation Barrel Roll and Steel Tiger (combat operations in Laos) as well as various Route Packages in northern Vietnam during his stay in April of 1966. Books covering F-105D pilots during this time usually conducted their first ten missions in the lower Route Pack areas before embarking on tougher missions.
Lastly the details on Lt. Hunter’s last mission are scarce, but some confusion regarding the target and ultimate death are ever clearer. Many publicized stories about the event suggested that the target was a bridge, however the unit history states that it was a truck park. Lt. Hunter was hit by automatic weapon fire, not a surface-to-air missile or anti-aircraft fire as suggested in past accounts. In fact when Lt. Hunter ejected from his F-105D, his emergency did in fact go off (this was not previously known). Below is an excerpt from the unit’s history regarding Lt. Hunter’s death.
On 25 May, Lt Gerry Hunter was downed by A/W fire as he was pulling out of a dive bomb pass. He was attacking a truck park in a heavily wooded area near Ban Ban. Although the FAC directing the strike reported seeing a good parachute, and hearing a beeper, Lt Hunter was dead when rescue forces reached him.
Tags: 355th TFW, afhra, last mission, Lt Hunter, maxwell afb
