HENNINGER, HOWARD WILLIAM

Name: Howard William Henninger
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 4th Air Commando Squadron, Da Nang AB, South Vietnam
Date of Birth: 03 May 1933
Home City of Record: Hanford CA
Date of Loss: 13 March 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 154000N 1073000E (YC550450)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: AC47D
Other Personnel in Incident: Dean A. Duvall; Gene E. Davis; Edwin E. Morgan;
Gerald E. Olson; Robert E. Pasekoff; Marshall I. Pauley (all missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 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.
Date Compiled: 01 January 1990

REMARKS: NO RAD CNTCT - SRCH NEG - J

SYNOPSIS: Capt. Howard W. Henninger was the pilot of an AC47D "Spooky" gunship.
The Spooky had evolved from the famed "Puff the Magic Dragon" versions of the
Douglas C47.

Puff introduced a new principle to air attack in Vietnam. Troubled by
difficulties in conducting nighttime defense, Capt. Ronald Terry of the U.S.
Air Force Aeronautical Systems Division remembered reading about flying
missionaries in Latin America who lowered baskets of supplies on a rope from a
tightly circling airplane. Throughout the series of pylon turns, the basket
remained suspended over a selected point on the ground. Could this principle be
applied to fire from automatic weapons? Tests proved it could, and could be
extremely successful.

Puff's "flare kicker" illuminated the target, then the pilot used a mark on the
window to his left as a gun sight and circled slowly as three multibarrel
7-62mm machine guns fired 18,000 rounds per minute from the door and two
windows in the port side of the passenger compartment. The aircraft was called
"Puff" after a popular song of the day, and because it resembled a dragon
overhead with flames billowing from its guns. Men on the ground welcomed the
presence of Puff and the later Spooky version, which was essentially the same
as the Puff, because of its ability to concentrate a heavy dose of defensive
fire in a surgically determined area.

Capt. Henninger's Spooky was assigned a mission which took it over Quang Nam
Province, South Vietnam on March 13, 1966. His crew that day included Capt.
Gerald E. Olson, Capt. Robert E. Pasekoff, Sgt. Dean A. Duvall, SSgt. Gene E.
Davis, SSgt. Marshall I. Pauley, and TSgt. Edwin E. Morgan.  Duvall and Pauley
were aerial gunners on the aircraft.

Shortly after takeoff from Da Nang, the aircraft was contacted by radio, and
this was the last contact had with Capt. Henninger's aircraft. The area of loss
is indicated as being about 10 miles from the border of Laos in Quang Nam
Province. All crew members aboard were declared Missing in Action. There is no
way to determine whether the enemy knows the fates of these men because the
U.S. Air Force is unsure of its area of loss.

Da Nang Regional Intelligence received a rallier's report in 1969 which
described a POW camp near Hue. The report included a very detailed description
of the camp and two lists of Americans held there. The lists were compiled by
the source viewing photographs of missing Americans, and were classified
"possible" and "positive". The source selected Gerald E. Olson's photograph as
possibly being a man held at the camp near Hue. This report was obtained from
the U.S. government in the mid-1980's by an interested citizen through the
Freedom of Information Act.

Although this report was later debunked by U.S. intelligence analysts, and not
distributed to the families of the men named on the lists, at least one former
POW who was held at this camp was shown the report and he confirmed some of the
names on the list and verified the accuracy of the camp description.

Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports have been received by the U.S.
related to Americans still missing in Southeast Asia. Some are as detailed as
the one received at Da Nang in 1969, and relate to many individuals. Although
most have been proven accurate, the public attitude in the U.S. intelligence
circles is that the reports are meaningless. Yet, many of these reports remain
classified.

Was Gerald E. Olson captured? What of the rest of the crew members? While the
Vietnamese may have the answers to these questions, we may never know the
extent of the knowledge of our own government so long as information regarding
these men is allowed to remain classified.

Tragically, many who have seen this classified information believe there are
hundreds of Americans still alive in captivity. Any of the men aboard the
Spooky lost on March 13, 1966 could be among them. It's time we brought our men
home. It's time we knew the truth.
