KNABB, KENNETH KEITH JR.

Name: Kenneth Keith Knabb, Jr.
Rank/Branch: O3/US Navy
Unit: Attack Squadron 106, USS INTREPID
Date of Birth: 26 March 1938
Home City of Record: Wheaton IL
Date of Loss: 21 October 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 181000N 1060500E (XF154100)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A4E
Other Personnel in Incident: (none 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: 15 March 1990

REMARKS:

REMARKS: The McDonnell Douglas A4 Skyhawk was intended to provide the Navy and
Marine Corps with an inexpensive, lightweight attack and ground support
aircraft. The design emphasized low-speed control and stability during take-off
and landing, as well as strength enough for catapult launch and carrier
landings. The plane was so compact that it did not need folding wings for
aboardship storage and handling.

Lt.Cdr. Kenneth K. Knabb Jr. was a pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 106
onboard the USS INTREPID (CVA 11). On October 21, 1968, he launched on a combat
mission into North Vietnam. As he was entering a strafing run from
approximately 6,500 feet, his aircraft was apparently hit by SAM or
anti-aircraft fire. The next sight of the aircraft was as it exploded into a
fireball on the ground. Knabb's target was about 10 miles southeast of the city
of Ha Tinh in the province of the same name.

Other pilots in the flight saw no parachute in the air, but a partially
deployed parachute was sighted on the ground in the vicinity of the crash. No
emergency radio beeper signals were heard, and it was unclear whether Knabb
survived. He was placed in Missing in Action status.

The Defense Intelligence Agency further expanded Knabb's status to include an
enemy knowledge ranking of 2. Category 2 indicates "suspect knowledge" and
includes personnel who may have been involved in loss incidents with individuals
reported in Category 1 (confirmed knowledge), or who were lost in areas or under
conditions that they may reasonably be expected to be known by the enemy; who
were connected with an incident which was discussed but not identified by names
in enemy news media; or identified (by elimination, but not 100% positively)
through analysis of all-source intelligence.

Kenneth Knabb did not return home. He remained among some 3,000 Americans who
were unaccounted for at the end of the war. Through the years the numbers have
dwindled to just over 2300 from the return of remains and case resolutions.
Since the war ended, however, hope that many of these men could be alive still
has been fueled by an ever-constant flow of refugee reports relating to
Americans missing in Southeast Asia. Many authorities who have examined this
classified data believe hundreds of Americans are still alive.

Whether Kenneth Knabb is one of those thought to be still alive is unknown.
What seems certain is that as long as one American remains alive, held against
his will, this country, which sent him to war, has a moral and legal obligation
to achieve his freedom and bring him home.
