Deceased/Not Found Charles Edward McDonough, Major US Air Force, 31, POW North Korea, 4 December 1950

[Richard]

MAJ Charles Edward McDonough​

BIRTH 8 Apr 1919 Connecticut, USA
DEATH 4 Dec 1950 (aged 31) North Korea

Late in the morning on December 4, 1950, an RB-45C Tornado (tail number 48-015, nicknamed "Focus Bofus") departed from Yakota Air Base, Japan, with a crew of four and using call sign Charlie Randall Able. The briefed mission was a highly sensitive classified reconnaissance operation along the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. Approximately halfway through the mission, Charlie Randall Able was attacked by four MiG-15s, and two of its engines were knocked out on the fighters' first pass. On the second pass, the RB-45C burst into flames and entered an uncontrolled flat spin. At just over 1,000 feet, the pilot established controlled flight, jettisoned the canopy. He was the only crew member known to have exited the aircraft, but was taken prisoner and died in enemy custody of wounds sustained in the crash. The other three members of this crew were likely killed in the crash, and all four crew members remain unaccounted-for.

Major Charles Edward McDonough, who joined the U.S. Air Force from Connecticut, served with Reconnaissance Detachment A, 84th Bombardment Squadron. He was the pilot of this RB-45C when it crashed near the Yalu River, and he was the only one aboard who managed to bail out of the aircraft. He landed in the burning wreckage and received burns on his hands and face. He managed to evade capture for three days before severe frostbite forced him to turn himself over to enemy forces. He was imprisoned in the town of Sinuiji, North Korea. His fellow prisoners later reported that Maj McDonough did not receive medical treatment, but was repeatedly interrogated until being removed from the prison. He was not seen or heard from again. His remains have not been identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today Major McDonough is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Service Members Associated with MAJ CHARLES MCDONOUGH's Loss​

LOVELL; JOHN RAYMOND	Col	Unaccounted For
MCDONOUGH; CHARLES EDWARD	Maj	Unaccounted For
PICUCCI; JAMES JEROME	Capt	Unaccounted For
YOUNG; JULES EDWIN	Maj	Unaccounted For

LINKS:

MAJ Charles Edward McDonough (1919-1950) - Find a...

He had Basic at Shaw Field. S/N: O-794558. He was in the 12th Bomb Group. 81st Bomb Squadron during WW II.

www.findagrave.com

https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000LqdW5EAJ

 

[Richard]

Colonel John Raymond Lovell, US Army
Went Missing in Action in Korea on 4 December 1950.

Colonel Lovell was the officer in charge of the RB-45C Reconnaissance plane program and was on the same flight as Major McDonough. It is possible that he may have survived the shoot down as well, and his name was broadcast by the North Koreans at one time as being held Prisoner of War (POW). However, he was not returned to the US following the armistice in 1953, and his fate has never been confirmed.

Colonel Lovell had been a US Army attache to Germany and was detained there following the declarations of war between the US and Nazi Germany. After being repatriated, he wrote a classified book which detailed the German order of battle which included not only all the German military organizations and forces, but also the names of all the German officers in command of them.

Following WW II, Colonel was sent as a military attache to Romania, which subsequently went Communist. He got his family out of the country, but he was placed in house arrest by the new Communist government. Dressing in his full dress uniform, with cape and sword, he "ordered" the Romanian guards outside his quarters to escort him to the train station where he simply took a train out of the country, making good his escape.

The RB-45C was a fairly new intelligence gathering asset, but it had been operating successfully without incident over North Korea prior to the flight on 4 December 1950. Normally it carried a crew of only three: Pilot, Co-pilot, and Navigator. On that fatal day, Colonel Lovell was added to the manifest and crew as an observer. He was probably going along to see how they operated while visiting the squadron in theater. His office was back in Washington, DC.

How was it that the Communists were able to shoot down the RB-45C on that particular day? It is well known that most of the MIG-15 pilots were actually Russian military pilots operating with the North Koreans.