Name: William Louis Madison
Rank/Branch: E5/US Air Force
Unit: 4th Air Commando Squadron, DaNang Airbase, South Vietnam
Date of Birth: 03 November 1935
Home City of Record: Lexington KY
Date of Loss: 15 May 1966
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 165800N 1060400E
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: AC47
Refno: 0339
Source: Compiled 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 in 1998.
Other Personnel In Incident: George W. Jensen; Kenneth D. McKenney; James A.
Preston; Lavern G. Reilly; Marshall L. Tapp; George W. Thompson; James E.
Williams (all missing)
REMARKS: NO RAD CNTCT - POS DED FBIS - J
SYNOPSIS: Maj. George W. Jensen was the pilot of an AC47 aircraft which
departed Ubon Air Base, Thailand on an armed visual reconnaissance mission
over Laos on May 15, 1966. His crew that day consisted of Maj. Lavern G.
Reilly, spare pilot; Capt. Marshall L. Tapp, co-pilot; 1Lt. George W.
Thompson, navigator; SSgt. James A. Preston, load master; Sgt. James E.
Williams, flight engineer; Airman 1st Class Kenneth D. McKenney and Sgt.
William L. Madison, gunners.
At 1745 hours, Jensen radioed his position, and again at 2100 hours, Jensen
radioed situation normal, with no position given, nor was the target area
specified. The aircraft's last location was over the Laotian panhandle about
15 miles due east of the city of Ban Muong Sen in Savannakhet Province.
When the aircraft failed to return to the base as scheduled, an aerial
search was conducted during the daylight hours of May 16, with negative
results. The aircraft was not found, and no evidence of the crew surfaced.
The crew of the AC47 is among nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos during the
war with Vietnam. Although the numbers of men actually termed "prisoner of
war" are quite low, this can be explained in understanding the blanket of
security surrounding the "secret war" the U.S. waged in Laos. To protect the
public perception that we "were not in Laos", details of many loss incidents
were "rearranged" to show a loss or casualty in South Vietnam. Only a
handful of publicly exposed cases were ever acknowledged POW, even though
scores of pilots and ground personnel were known to have been alive and well
at last contact (thus increasing the chance they were captured alive).
The Lao communist faction, the Pathet Lao, stated on several occasions that
they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, but the Pathet Lao were not
included in the Paris Peace agreements ending American involvement in the
war. As a consequence, no American POWs held in Laos were negotiated for.
Not one American held in Laos has ever been released. As thousands of
reports continue to flow in regarding Americans still captive in Southeast
Asia, the fates of the crew of the AC47 become more intriguing. It is
entirely possible, with no evidence to the contrary, that they survived to
be captured. Whether they survived or not, they were abandoned to the enemy.