Page 85 - Images: We were...We are

Captain David J. Rickel, pilot, and Lieutenant Gerald J. Crosson, Jr., weapons
system operator, were lost while flying an F-4D PHANTOM over North Vietnam.
Their aircraft was shot down about 20 miles southwest of the city of Quang Khe,
Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. Other aircrews in the area saw no parachutes,
nor were any emergency beeper signals heard. Search and rescue operations failed
to locate any sign of either aircrewman and both men were classified Missing in
Action.

The North Vietnamese never listed the two as captured and Rickel and Crosson
were not among the American POWs released in February 1973, nor did any of the
released POWs have any knowledge of the two men.

The Secretary of the Air Force approved a Presumptive Finding of Death for Gerald
Crosson on 05 May 1978, changing his status from Missing in Action to Died while
Missing.

12 Mar 2003

We lived on the same block in Staten Island back in the start of the sixties and
went out a couple of times. I knew he had gone into the service and was MIA. My
Aunt and Uncle lived on the same block for many, many years. I used to ask my
Uncle (George McGuire) the last relative alive, who had moved to Florida if he had
ever heard any more and, of course, the answer was no.

Gerald Crosson was a wonderful young man and is still in the memory of others
after all these years.

Claudia Williams

3 Jun 2004

Gerry Crosson was my best friend in college. We were both ROTC Cadets together
at NYU. In 1964 he and I drove to Plattsburgh Air Force Base for ROTC Summer
Camp (Basic Training) in his 1932 Model A Ford.

The last time we saw each other in person was in late Fall of 1966. He had just
finished UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training) at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, and
he and his brother Peter stopped to see me at Amarillo Air Force Base. Gerry was
excited about going on to F-4 training and then on to Southeast Asia.

We exchanged letters only a couple of times before 16 May 68. I was notified by a
mutual friend from NYU that Gerry had been shot down.

I wore Gerry's POW Bracelet until 1973 when the POWs returned. I then bought a
new one with his name because the old one was pretty beat up. I wear it on the
16th of May each year.

Section III 49