Remembering Shifty

Colonel Edward B. Burdett, commander of the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, was shot down by an SA-2 Guideline Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) on November 18, 1967 during a Commando Club radar-assisted raid on Phuc Yen. In a similar event a few months later, a USAF Republic F-105D-6-RE Thunderchief (serial no. 60-0418, of the 34th TFS, 388th TFW) trails fire and smoke just after interception by an SA-2 missile, about 12 miles south of Hanoi, North Vietnam on February 14, 1968. The SA-2 did not actually hit an aircraft - the warhead was detonated by a command from the tracking radar or by a proximity fuse in the missile when it neared the target, throwing deadly fragments over a wide area. The pilot, Captain Robert Malcolm Elliot (1929-1968), was initially listed as MIA after other USAF personnel observed a possible parachute. He was declared dead in 1979. In 1988 the Vietnamese returned his ID card and a small, partial set of remains which were inadequate to confirm identity. Capt. Elliot died from injuries, according to the Vietnamese in a document they released in 1992. Col Elliot’s remains (he was promoted during his time carried as MIA) were not recovered until 1998, identity then confirmed, and were buried at Arlington National Cemetery in 1990. (National Museum of the USAF, via Wikipedia)