Stanley Kutz Smiley
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
Attack Squadron 23
Entered the Service From: Sidney, Nebraska
Date of Birth: January 31, 1939
Date of Death: July 20, 1969
Wars or Conflicts: Vietnam War
Memorialized: Courts of the Missing: Court B
Honolulu Memorial
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Lieutenant Smiley was a member of Attack Squadron 23, Carrier Air Wing 19 aboard the Aircraft Carrier USS ORISKANY (CVA-34). On July 20, 1969, he was the pilot of a Douglas Attack Aircraft Skyhawk (A-4F) on a bombing/strafing mission over Saravane Province, Laos. After completion of his mission he saw a truck and made a dive for it, but crashed. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial
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The aircraft were in Saravane Province, about 40 miles west of the South Vietnamese city of A Shau when they had completed their initial mission and were enroute to the aircraft carrier. Lt. Smiley sighted a truck and told him wingman that he was going to confirm whether or not it was rolling stock or a hulk. As the wingman prepared to follow his flight leader in an attack, he saw Lt. Smileys aircraft in a shallow dive about 60 degrees off the planned attack heading. The aircraft crashed. The wingman reported that
Smiley never radioed any malfunction, the flight did not receive any anti-aircraft fire during the mission, yet the crash occurred in a known high concentration anti-aircraft artillery location. The aircraft did not burn or explode upon impact with the ground.
No sign was found during an aerial search that Lt. Smiley had successfully ejected the aircraft, but the hostile threat in this area of Laos precluded any close inspection of the air crash site.∼Smiley was from Sidney, NE and a Lt. in the Navy during the Vietnam War.
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
Attack Squadron 23
Entered the Service From: Sidney, Nebraska
Date of Birth: January 31, 1939
Date of Death: July 20, 1969
Wars or Conflicts: Vietnam War
Memorialized: Courts of the Missing: Court B
Honolulu Memorial
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Lieutenant Smiley was a member of Attack Squadron 23, Carrier Air Wing 19 aboard the Aircraft Carrier USS ORISKANY (CVA-34). On July 20, 1969, he was the pilot of a Douglas Attack Aircraft Skyhawk (A-4F) on a bombing/strafing mission over Saravane Province, Laos. After completion of his mission he saw a truck and made a dive for it, but crashed. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial
====================
The aircraft were in Saravane Province, about 40 miles west of the South Vietnamese city of A Shau when they had completed their initial mission and were enroute to the aircraft carrier. Lt. Smiley sighted a truck and told him wingman that he was going to confirm whether or not it was rolling stock or a hulk. As the wingman prepared to follow his flight leader in an attack, he saw Lt. Smileys aircraft in a shallow dive about 60 degrees off the planned attack heading. The aircraft crashed. The wingman reported that
Smiley never radioed any malfunction, the flight did not receive any anti-aircraft fire during the mission, yet the crash occurred in a known high concentration anti-aircraft artillery location. The aircraft did not burn or explode upon impact with the ground.
No sign was found during an aerial search that Lt. Smiley had successfully ejected the aircraft, but the hostile threat in this area of Laos precluded any close inspection of the air crash site.∼Smiley was from Sidney, NE and a Lt. in the Navy during the Vietnam War.
Stanley Kutz Smiley
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
Attack Squadron 23
Entered the Service From: Sidney, Nebraska
Date of Birth: January 31, 1939
Date of Death: July 20, 1969
Wars or Conflicts: Vietnam War
Memorialized: Courts of the Missing: Court B
Honolulu Memorial
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Lieutenant Smiley was a member of Attack Squadron 23, Carrier Air Wing 19 aboard the Aircraft Carrier USS ORISKANY (CVA-34). On July 20, 1969, he was the pilot of a Douglas Attack Aircraft Skyhawk (A-4F) on a bombing/strafing mission over Saravane Province, Laos. After completion of his mission he saw a truck and made a dive for it, but crashed. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial
====================
The aircraft were in Saravane Province, about 40 miles west of the South Vietnamese city of A Shau when they had completed their initial mission and were enroute to the aircraft carrier. Lt. Smiley sighted a truck and told him wingman that he was going to confirm whether or not it was rolling stock or a hulk. As the wingman prepared to follow his flight leader in an attack, he saw Lt. Smileys aircraft in a shallow dive about 60 degrees off the planned attack heading. The aircraft crashed. The wingman reported that
Smiley never radioed any malfunction, the flight did not receive any anti-aircraft fire during the mission, yet the crash occurred in a known high concentration anti-aircraft artillery location. The aircraft did not burn or explode upon impact with the ground.
No sign was found during an aerial search that Lt. Smiley had successfully ejected the aircraft, but the hostile threat in this area of Laos precluded any close inspection of the air crash site.∼Smiley was from Sidney, NE and a Lt. in the Navy during the Vietnam War.
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
Attack Squadron 23
Entered the Service From: Sidney, Nebraska
Date of Birth: January 31, 1939
Date of Death: July 20, 1969
Wars or Conflicts: Vietnam War
Memorialized: Courts of the Missing: Court B
Honolulu Memorial
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Lieutenant Smiley was a member of Attack Squadron 23, Carrier Air Wing 19 aboard the Aircraft Carrier USS ORISKANY (CVA-34). On July 20, 1969, he was the pilot of a Douglas Attack Aircraft Skyhawk (A-4F) on a bombing/strafing mission over Saravane Province, Laos. After completion of his mission he saw a truck and made a dive for it, but crashed. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial
====================
The aircraft were in Saravane Province, about 40 miles west of the South Vietnamese city of A Shau when they had completed their initial mission and were enroute to the aircraft carrier. Lt. Smiley sighted a truck and told him wingman that he was going to confirm whether or not it was rolling stock or a hulk. As the wingman prepared to follow his flight leader in an attack, he saw Lt. Smileys aircraft in a shallow dive about 60 degrees off the planned attack heading. The aircraft crashed. The wingman reported that
Smiley never radioed any malfunction, the flight did not receive any anti-aircraft fire during the mission, yet the crash occurred in a known high concentration anti-aircraft artillery location. The aircraft did not burn or explode upon impact with the ground.
No sign was found during an aerial search that Lt. Smiley had successfully ejected the aircraft, but the hostile threat in this area of Laos precluded any close inspection of the air crash site.∼Smiley was from Sidney, NE and a Lt. in the Navy during the Vietnam War.
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