Mitchell Sim Lane

  General Notes:

FOUND AT: http://www.scopesys.com/cgi/bio2.cgi?bio=L053

Name: Mitchell Sim Lane
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 188th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Tuy Hoa AB, South Vietnam
Date of Birth: 04 October 1940
Home City of Record: Albuquerque NM
Date of Loss: 04 January 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 120100N 1090200E (BP860291)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F100C

Other Personnel in Incident: Bobby G. Neeld (missing from another F100)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 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.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: The F100 Super Sabre, sometimes affectionately called "Hun" or "Lead
Sled" first saw action in Southeast Asia in May 1962 when several were sent to
Thailand from the 13th Air Force in response to communist incursions into
northwest Laos.

F100 operations in Vietnam began in 1965, and took part in Operation Flaming
Dart and Rolling Thunder attacks against North Vietnam and later in Wild Weasel
and Iron Hand anti-SAM operations. The F100 featured ground directed bombing
capability for night and bad weather, high-tech weapon firing systems, accurate
target-marking systems.

The only F100C's to serve in South Vietnam arrived in the spring of 1968 and
remained about a year. The aircraft belonged to the U.S. Air National Guard
squadrons mobilized as a result of North Korea's capture of the American
intelligence ship Pueblo. The F100's, with the exception of some of the F
models, were all single-seat aircraft.

On January 4, 1969, two F100C aircraft departed Tuy Hoa on a combat mission,
presumably over North Vietnam. Capt. Mitchell S. Lane was the pilot of one of
the aircraft and Major Bobby G. Neeld the pilot of the other. The two had
completed the combat portion of the mission and were diverted from the intended
recovery base due to weather conditions. Neither aircraft returned to friendly
control, and were last known to be about 10 miles northwest of Cam Ranh. Both
men were declared Missing in Action.

When the last American troops left Southeast Asia in 1975, some 2500 Americans
were unaccounted for. Reports received by the U.S. Government since that time
build a strong case for belief that hundreds of these "unaccounted for"
Americans are still alive and in captivity.

"Unaccounted for" is a term that should apply to numbers, not men. We do not
know if Lane and Neeld are alive or dead, but it seems certain that some are
alive. As long as even one American remains captive, we as a nation owe these
men our best effort to find them and bring them home. Until the fates of men
like Lane and Neeld are known, their families will wonder if they are dead or
alive - and why they were deserted.