"Shortly before 3 o'clock one afternoon last week Capt David I. Holland, pilot of an RB-66 reconnaissance plane making a navigational training flight out of Toul-Rosieres, France, radioed in his position to the nearest USAF ground station. He was, he said, over Nordholz, West Germany. A few minutes later, rocket fire from a Soviet jet fighter sent Holland's plane cartwheeling down in flames. Hitting their ejection buttons, Holland and his two crewmen parachuted to earth - and landed in a pine wood near the town of Gardelegen, East Germany, some 135 miles from where they thought they were.

The error was more than a little embarrassing for this was the second time in two months that a U.S. plane had been trapped over East Germany. In January, all three crewmen of a T-39 jet trainer lost their lives when their plane was shot down 125 miles on the wrong side of the border. On that occasion, the Soviets claimed the plane was spying and had been shot down only after it ignored signals to land. The U.S., in turn, angrily accused the Russians of a "shocking and senseless act."

Last week, however, the U.S. talked more softly. Though Washington mildly protested the "precipitous" downing of the RB-66, it also apologized for the errant flight and employed former ambassador to Russia Llewellyn E. Thompson Jr., a man whose word is respected in the Kremlin, to deny "categorically" as "contrary to fact" the Soviet charge that the plane had been engaged on a spying mission.

The denial, however, left several questions unanswered. Captain Holland's two crewmen, Capt. Melvin J. Kessler and First Lt. Harold W. Welch, were both navigators, which should have greatly reduced the chance of navigational error. Moreover, the RB-66 is, in fact, often assigned to electronic search missions. And it just so happened that this particular RB-66 crashed in an area seething with Russian troops on maneuver. All of this clearly made the Russians even more skeptical than usual, and at the end of the week Moscow was still ignoring U.S. requests for return of the three captured airmen."

P.S.
This incident occurred on Mar 10, 1964. The aircraft was RB-66B (#0451 from the 19th TRS, 10th TAC Recon Wing) shot down by MiG-21 over Gardelegen, East Germany. 3 crew members ejected and were captured.

The pilot, together with a SMAMA civilian maintenance man, began takeoff roll and immediately after rotation/liftoff the engine that was changed experienced internal failure. The aircraft crashed immediately and was fatal to the pilot and civilian crewmember.

When the SMAMA maintenance personnel changed the engine, they removed the bolts securing the alternator cover (dog p----r) and apparently these bolts or some of the bolts were left loose in the forward engine nacalle during reinstallation. During takeoff, at rotation, the MLG squawk switch signaled the engine inlet screens to retract. It is presumed that loose bolts were loose in the forward engine nacalle and were injested into the engine (FOD) when inlet screens were retracted.

There were lawsuits against Douglas and Allison. I know that Douglas settled for about $25,000 (?).

2. During July 1959, two (2) RB-66B aircraft of the 16th TRS were flying in formation for the purpose of taking pictures of one another. One aircraft flew directly over the other. At this time the two (2) aircraft hit one another. As they hit, the drift sight on the upper aircraft hit the lower aircaft with such force that a round hole was punched into the wing constant section of the lower aircraft. The upper aircraft went out of control. The pilot and instructor navigator (in gunners seat) ejected. The navigator received fatal injuries to his face, as he was looking throgh the drift sight, and went in with the aircraft without attempting ejection. The lower aircraft recovered at Shaw AFB, SC.

The 1966-67 time frame at Takhli was the first tour of duty for me in Thailand. My second was at Ubon with the 25th Tactical Fighter Squadron. I had married my Thai sweetheart in 1969 and have been happily married since.

We make it back to Thailand every other year and several years ago we toured the entire country. One stop I really enjoyed making was Takhli where we visited the town and the radar site atop the mountain. From there, we were able to view the base from the mountain top. The two Grumman Bearcat's that stood gate guard duties at the Thai gate had been removed and sent to the Thai Air force Museum at Don Maung.

The visit brought back some great memories, like the time EB-66B #498 came back from a mission and the pilot decided to scream in low over the runway and pull up onto the aircraft's back, roll over and land. What a great sight for us maintenance types. I believe it as the pilot's last mission. Unfortunately, when the aircraft taxied back to the ramp the wing fuel tanks were leaking and an inspection of the wings revealed that the aircraft was beyond repair. Not sure what happened to it after my tour was complete, but it was sure a great source of desperately needed parts!