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Charles Allen Knochel

Name: Charles Allen Knochel
Rank/Branch: O3/US Navy
Unit: Attack Squadron 176, USS INTREPID
(CVS-11)
Date of Birth: 12 February 1940
(Rensselaer IN)
Home City of Record: Lafayette IN
Date of Loss: 22 September 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 180958N 1063357E (XF470150)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A1H
Refno: 0467
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01
April 1990 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 1998.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: Lt. Charles A. Knochel was a pilot
assigned to Attack Squadron 176 onboard the
aircraft carrier USS Intrepid. On September
22, 1966, he launched in his A1H Skyraider
attack aircraft on an armed reconnaissance
mission in the southern part of North Vietnam.

Lt. Knochel was leading a two plane section of
aircraft against enemy supply lines. After
completing their mission, both aircraft were
on their way out of the area and within 3
miles of the coast, when they were hit by a
barrage of anti-aircraft fire. Lt. Knochel
radioed that his aircraft was hit in the
right wing and began to gain altitude and head
out to sea. Once over the water, the right
wing started to burn as the ammunition from
his wing guns started to explode. Lt. Knochel
radioed his wingman that he was going to
bail out.

All indications were that Lt. Knochel was not
injured as he descended in his parachute.
Rescue helicopters and amphibian aircraft were
immediately called in for assistance. Lt.
Knochel's parachute was swinging a bit as he
entered the water, and at a point when the
parachute was at a maximum swing, he hit
the water as if lying on his back. The wingman
saw that Knochel made no effort to release
himself from his chute harness or inflate his
life preserver, and felt that the impact had
knocked him unconscious.

Within 12 minutes of the time that Knochel
entered the water, the rescue amphibian was on
the scene. Upon landing, the chute could no
longer be seen and the rescue diver could not
locate Lt. Knochel. It was believed he
drowned, unconscious.

Lt. Knochel had freedom and safety within his
grasp when he lost his life due to a
tragically ironic accident. He is listed among
the missing because his body was never found
to return to the country he served. For other
missing, however, there is no clear cut
evidence of death - in fact, for hundreds,
there is evidence of survival.

The agony of dealing with a death is one
horrible aspect of war. The agony of
uncertainty, reading daily of the thousands of
reports relating to Americans alive in
Southeast Asia is another, but one that could
be prevented by bringing these men home and
demanding a final accounting for those who
perished.

 

 

Some Gave All
Sung By Billy Ray Cyrus






 
As I completed these pages, I thought about the
reason I adopted this POW/MIA. I did in memory
of my dad, Dwayne L. Bishop Sr. He was a Marine
in the Korea War. So if you have a vet in your
family, deceased or alive, adopt a POW/MIA for
them. I am sure they would want to see all of
our Vets home. Let's bring them home.