Capt. Hallie �bud� Smith - Pow/mia

MAJOR HALLIE WILLIAM SMITH

Date of birth: 16 October 1941

Date of casualty: 8 January 1968

Home of record: Portland, Oregon

Branch and Rank: Air Force, Major, Pilot

Unit: 7th Air Force, 460th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron

Awards: National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Service Medal

Location of name on the Vietnam Wall: 33E, 94

Location of service: South Vietnam, Pleiku province

Died while missing in action .. air crash on land .. body not recovered.

Major Smith was a member of the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam. On January 8, 1968, he was the pilot of a McDonnell Phantom II Reconnaissance Fighter (RF-4C) on a reconnaissance mission when radio contact was lost in Kontum Province, South Vietnam. His remains were not recovered.

Schools attended: Milwaukie High School, Lewis & Clark College

Memorials: Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Washington, DC), Gold Star War Memorial � Milwaukie High School, Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, Willamette National Cemetery, MIA Wall at Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Portland)

The Oregonian, Thursday, December 25, 1968

Fliers Thought Prisoners of VC

These are dark days for Mrs. Robert W. Stanley of West Linn and Mrs. Hallie (Bud) Smith of Portland, whose husbands are believed to be prisoners of the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.

Capt. Stanley was shot down on April 1, 1967; Capt. Smith on Jan. 8, 1968.

Capt. Smith was born and reared in the Portland area, graduated from Milwaukie High School, then from Lewis and Clark College in 1963, got his commission at Officers Training School Feb. 4, 1964, was married Feb. 8, then went on to pilot training.

�Our marriage was inevitable,� Mrs. Smith said, with her first real show of laughter. �My maiden name was Smith when we went to Lewis & Clark together and they called our names together whenever they took roll.

�Bud got his wings in October 1964. Then we had two wonderful years together in England,� Mrs. Smith recalled.

They have no children.

�Capt. Smith was flying an unarmed plane on a low-level reconnaissance mission in the highlands east of Da Nang on Jan. 8, 1968, just before the Tet offensive.

As he dropped down for his photography run his plane disappeared from the radar and radio contact was lost. Three days later a party of Marines found the wreckage of his plane, but no sign of Capt. Smith or his navigator, no parachutes and no sign that they went down with the plane.

�Bud has a will to live that will keep him going,� his wife said. �I�ve never known Bud to give up on anything. He has a lot to live for.�

Every month the waiting wives send a typed single-page letter to their husbands, addressed to Madame Binh, the Viet Cong representative at the Paris peace talks, with a note asking her to see that the letter is forwarded to their husbands.