From left to right: Air Force Staff Sgt. Henry Gerald Gish, of Pennsylvania; Tech. Sgt. Donald Kennebunk Springsteadah, of New Jersey; and Tech. Sgt. Willis Rozelle Hall, of Florida. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has identified the remains of three airmen killed in action in Laos in 1968 when their secret mountaintop radar site was overrun by North Vietnamese commandos.
The airmen, serving with Detachment 1, 1043rd Radar Evaluation Squadron, were among 19 men stationed atop a 5,600-foot peak in a tactical air navigation radar site known as Lima Site 85. The clandestine site was used to help American B-52 bombers navigate to their targets.
The men, officially accounted for on June 23, are Tech. Sgt. Donald Kennebunk Springsteadah, of New Jersey; Staff Sgt. Henry Gerald Gish, of Pennsylvania; and Tech. Sgt. Willis Rozelle Hall, of Florida.
DPAA has identified seven service members missing from the Vietnam War since Oct. 1.
About 1,570 service members remain unaccounted for from that 10-year conflict, with the remains of more than 280 of them believed to be in Laos, the agency told Stars and Stripes earlier this year.
The United States secretly set up Lima Site 85, or LS 85, in the fall of 1967, according to an online article by the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
“The location of LS 85 created complicated military and political problems,” the article states. “It was only 15 miles away from the border with North Vietnam and was surrounded by numerous communist troops. Moreover, the U.S. could not legally have an overt military presence because of official Laotian neutrality.”
The top-secret radar program conducted there was manned by “hand-picked, volunteer USAF technicians” who were “sheep dipped,” a descriptor for airmen who had “officially” left the Air Force and became civilians but remained under Air Force command, the article states.
“When the mission was over, they were to be reinstated in the Air Force with no loss of rank or pay,” the article states.
Despite the site’s secrecy, North Vietnam military leaders recognized within months that the radar complex was contributing greatly to devastating bombing runs over North Vietnam and Laos. On the night of March 10, 1968, commandos scaled the cliffs and overran LS 85, the article states.
Springsteadah, Gish, Hall and 16 other men were manning the site as the commandos commenced an assault with grenades and mortars early on March 11, DPAA said in a narrative of the loss posted on its website.
The airmen who survived the initial attack made their way to a narrow ledge overlooking the valley below. There they fended off small arms fire and grenade attacks.
A few hours later, U.S. helicopters arrived and rescued eight men while covered by an A-1 Skyraider attack plane.
Eleven Americans were killed in action, but their remains were unrecoverable, DPAA said. Springsteadah, Gish and Hall were among them.
DPAA personnel and members of partner organizations discovered remains near the site in 2023 and 2025 that were recovered and brought to the forensic lab in Hawaii.
