Parish Airmen Missing After 70+Years
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
Two airmen from St. Landry Parish, who belonged to the same Marine Flight Squadron and separately flew night combat mission aircraft during the Korean War, are still reported as missing in action after more than 70 years, according to the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
Master Sgt. Leon Fabian Devillier, whose F-73 Tigerjet, went down during a 1951 mission and Capt. Lote Thistlethwaite, who piloted a F3D2 Sky Night Raider, that disappeared on radar in 1953, are both listed as unaccounted for, DPAA records show.
Devillier and Thistlethwaite were remembered on Monday during the annual Veterans Memorial programs that were held at the Yambilee Building and the Veterans Memorial Park south of Opelousas.
Both men served as members of Marine Squadron 513 at different times in Korea.
Devillier was one of two crewmembers inside the twin-engined post-World War II fighter that lifted away from Pusan Air Base in South Korea on Oct. 31, 1951, during a Sohung area bombing mission, DPAA records indicate.
While dropping bombs inside the targeted area, the plane occupied by Devillier, who manned the radar intercept unit, exploded following an ordinance release. The aircraft then failed to regain altitude and afterward crashed into a hillside, the records said.
Rescue missions conducted by the Air Force following the crash failed to locate any segment of the crew, said DOD records.
Thistlethwaite, who was piloting the two-crew member jet, took off on April 7, 1953,from Pyongyang Air Base in South Korea in order to provide top cover for other aircraft which were on separate night missions, said the Department of Defense.
The last contact with the aircraft flown by Thistlethwaite occurred near the North Korean border lowlands.
That was the last location the Air Force had with the plane, which vanished off radar and never retired to the Air Base, said department of defense records.
Subsequent rescue searches failed to locate Thistlethwaite’s plane which was flying near the mouth of the Taedong River, said DOD documents.
The names of both airmen are memorialized on the Court of The Missing National Memorial Cemetery of The Pacific and the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
