On April 15, 1969 a U.S. Navy VQ-1 EC-121M (callsign, “Deep Sea 129”) flew a routine Beggar Shadow reconnaissance mission over the Sea of Japan. At roughly 1347 local time, while approximately 90 NM off the North Korean coast, the aircraft was shot down by two North Korean MiG-21 fighters. Below are the 31 crewmen were killed.
January 16, 1942 – April 15, 1969 – Copilot
February 2, 1946 – April 15, 1969 – EW Operator
February 9, 1943 – April 15, 1969 – Senior Evaluator
March 2, 1931 – April 15, 1969 – Evaluator
March 15, 1947 – April 15, 1969 – Crew Leader
March 30, 1943 – April 15, 1969 – Navigator
April 10, 1935 – April 15, 1969 – Pilot
May 4, 1937 – April 15, 1969 – Radar Operator
May 15, 1933 – April 15, 1969 – Airborne Electronics Supervisor
May 29, 1943 – April 15, 1969 – Mech
May 30, 1944 – April 15, 1969 – Radar Operator
June 3, 1944 – April 15, 1969 – EW Operator
June 4, 1944 – April 15, 1969 – Manual Morse Collection Operator
July 6, 1946 – April 15, 1969 – Secure Teletype Communicator
July 8, 1945 – April 15, 1969 – Manual Morse Collection Operator
August 8, 1937 – April 15, 1969 – Flight Engineer
August 24, 1942 – April 15, 1969 – Korean Linguist
August 28, 1941 – April 15, 1969 Copilot (Body Recovered)
October 9, 1942 – April 15, 1969 – Korean and Russian Lignuist
September 11, 1939 – April 15, 1969 – Russian Linguist and Manual Morse Operator
October 4, 1948 – April 15, 1969 – Radar Operator
November 18, 1943 – April 15, 1969 – Evaluator
December. 21, 1942 – April 15, 1969 – Flight Engineer
December 22, 1946 – April 15, 1969 – Radio Operator
December 27, 1938 – April 15, 1969 – Communication Evaluator
December 31, 1942 – April 15, 1969 – Navigator
1934 – April 15, 1969 – Flight Engineer
? – April 15, 1969 – Plane Captain
? – April 15, 1969 – Linguist
? – April 15, 1969 – Korean Linguist
1938 – April 15, 1969 – EW Operator (Body Recovered)
15 April 2020 at 12:30
My memory of this event as I was, at the time, the young USAF officer who sat next to the 314 Air Division (Also known as Air Forces Korea) commander, logging and writing the outgoing messages as the USAF response to this event unfolded.
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15 April 2020 at 13:51
Whoever did this presentation Bravo Zulu you did a wonderful job remembering all those Shipmates you died that day. RIP Shipmates.
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15 April 2020 at 14:31
I think this was posted previously but I never tire of reading about it. I was in Kamiseya when this happened and we lost several of the men on the plane from there, 1 Marine and several sailors and I still remember the chatter and lots more. Thanks for never letting us forget the sacrifice of so many and it is unfortunate that the general population has no clue about these tradgedies and the sacrifice of our military personnel and others every day around the globe.
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15 April 2020 at 15:29
I flew with some of this crew at DaNang in 67 including LCDR Jas. Overstreet. Steve Tesmer and I were both out of San Miguel, P.I. TAD to DaNang. God bless all of you guys. You won’t be forgotten. William Leppert
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16 April 2020 at 00:24
I was an ATW in VW-1 NAS Agana, Guam in 65. Flew as an operator. We flew these same flights between Japan, Taiwan and China. One of the photos shows one of the crew with a VW-1 patch. The Navy closed the ATW rate and turned us into AX. I transitioned to VP-50 Julie-Jez operator in early 66, then VP-90 in Glenview. I then got transitioned to AT again in the reserves and became an FCO in VP94.
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16 April 2020 at 05:28
How does a T-bird (Potts) become a linguist? Is that a typo or did he change rates?
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16 April 2020 at 12:24
That was a typo. Correction made. Thank you!
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16 April 2020 at 15:55
He was our best Korean linguist out of Kamiseya.
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16 April 2020 at 17:39
CTI1 John Howard Potts – Korean linguist. John’s first enlistment was in the USAF, and he received his initial training in Korean at Yale University courtesy of the Air Force. After reenlisting in the Navy John did tours in Okinawa (Joint Sobe Processing Center) and Naval Communications Station Philippines (San Miguel). During the latter tour, John spent considerable time in Da Nang, earning 10 Air Medals. He had recently been reassigned to Kamiseya when the shootdown occurred.
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16 April 2020 at 13:41
I served with “Larry” Griener in VW-1 when he checked in with his red ’57 Chevy! He was a good AE and popular in a quiet way. I was priveledged (spelling ) to serve with him.
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16 April 2020 at 14:24
Thank you to each and every one of you who gave your lives to our country, our Navy and Marine Corps, and our freedom. I’ll always have a hard time understanding how our politicians allow incidents such as this to take place without any apparent repercussions. Wonderful job—as always, Mario—posting these Station HYPO historical pieces!
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17 April 2020 at 18:08
Every April 15th I am drawn back to that infamous day in 1969. The morning watch brought us the news of the flight. NSGA Hakata had shipmates on board. We met the news with silence. We did not talk about this day as time passed.
Bill Wilke
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4 June 2020 at 11:05
Mario,
BZ for putting this together.
I notice that CTIC Smith appears to be quite senior in age and is wearing what appear to be both WWII and Korean War ribbons.
I bet his would be a very interesting story!
I suspect all readers of this fascinating blog would enjoy knowing his history.
Thank you for your efforts here!
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6 July 2020 at 12:32
I was on duty at CINCPACFLT when this plane was shot down. All hell broke loose in the comm center. One of my shipmates, Jerry Chelleu, had just transferred in from that unit. He knew all those guys, he was visibly shaken.
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6 July 2020 at 13:41
I was an ELECTRONIC Signals Analyst stationed at VQ-1 from 1965 – 1967 which ended my enlistment and I knew some
of the crew members onboard.
The shoot down gave me a sense of sadness and grief beyond description resulting in my enlistment into the Navy Reserves where I stayed for another 20 years.
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