Offutt, Gary P. – KIA

Gary Offutt “was a man of conviction who followed his dreams, even to Vietnam. Gary joined the Air Force after graduating from the University of Missouri at Columbia. He had taken pilot lessons since high school,” and entered the USAF through the Reserves.

His unit, the 429th Tactical Fighter Squadron out of Bien Hoa AB, Vietnam “was credited with more than 4,000 hours of combat against North Vietnam. He was scheduled to take his most important flight back to his wife and his 1 1/2-year-old son-just one month after the fateful mission.” (1)

On October 1, 1965, he was the pilot of a North American Super Sabre Fighter (F-100D #55-3543). “1st Lt. Gary Offutt was unable to eject when his F-100 Super Sabre went into a near-vertical dive during a strafing run near Can Tho in South Vietnam,  according to another U.S. pilot.

Reports say an oil can was the only indicator that his F-100 had plunged into the delta’s 100-ft. abyss.

…Joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams investigated the crash site in 1993, 1994, and 1995. In 1995, excavators found a tooth, nine bones, fractured pieces of an aircraft, and part of a watch. These, they said, belonged to Lt. Gary Offutt.”(1)

Gary’s remains were recovered on April 11, 1995, and identified on March 6, 1997.

Gary Offutt is buried at the Cameron Memory Gardens in Caldwell County, Missouri. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.

Sources: Bio info/Photo – HonorStates.org; Findagrave.com; (1) scopesys.com