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WEST, JOHN THOMAS
Name: John Thomas West
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 25th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Ubon
AB, Thailand Date of Birth: 26 July 1947
Home City of Record: Baltimore MD Date of
Loss: 02
January 1970 Country of Loss: Laos Loss
Coordinates: 163400N 1062700E (XD548329)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2 Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4D
Refno: 1543
Other Personnel in Incident: Ronnie G.
Lindstrom
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01
April 1990 with the assistance of 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: The Phantom, used by Air Force,
Marine and Navy air wings, served a
multitude of functions including
fighter-bomber and
interceptor, photo and electronic
surveillance. The two man aircraft was
extremely fast (Mach 2), and had a long
range (900 - 2300 miles, depending on stores
and mission type). The F4 was also extremely
maneuverable and handled well at low and
high altitudes. The F4 was selected for a
number of state-of-the-art electronics
conversions, which improved radar intercept
and computer bombing capabilities enormously.
Most pilots considered it one of the
"hottest" planes around.
Capt. John T. West and 1Lt. Ronnie G.
Lindstrom were co-pilots of an F4D Phantom
which departed as second aircraft in a
flight of two from Ubon Airfield on January
2, 1970 on an operational mission over Laos.
As the aircraft were near the Sepone River
in Savannakhet Province, about 10 miles from
the border of South Vietnam, West and
Lindstrom's aircraft was seen to crash. The
flight leader saw the aircraft descend and
saw the wreckage on the ground, but observed
no parachutes. No emergency radio beeper
signals were heard to indicate that West and
Lindstrom safely ejected from the aircraft.
West and Lindstrom became two of nearly 600
Americans who disappeared in Laos during the
Vietnam War. Although Pathet Lao leaders
stressed that they held "tens of tens" of
American prisoners, they stated that those
captured in Laos would be released in Laos,
hoping to gain a seat at the negotiating
table in Paris where the U.S. and Vietnam
were negotiating an end to the war. The U.S.
did not include Laos in the Paris Peace
Accords, and no American held in Laos was
ever released. In America's haste to leave
Southeast Asia, it abandoned some of its
finest men. Since the end of the war,
thousands of reports have been received
indicating that hundreds of Americans are
still held captive.
In seeming disregard for the Americans
either held or having been murdered by the
Pathet Lao, by 1989 the U.S. and the Lao had
devised a working plan to provide Laos with
humanitarian and economic aid leading toward
ultimate full diplomatic and trade relations
while Laos allows the excavation of military
crash sites at sporadic intervals. In
America's haste to return to Southeast Asia,
we are again abandoning our men.
