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This Day in History – June 10, 1969 – The X-15 gets a place in history

10 June 1969: The U.S. Air Force donated the first North American Aviation X-15, serial number 56-6670, to the Smithsonian Institution for display at the National Air and Space Museum. The first of three X-15A hypersonic research rocketplanes built by North American for the Air Force and the National Advisory Committee (NACA, the predecessor of NASA), 56-6670 made the first glide flight and

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Whitford, Lawrence W., Jr. – KIA

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  • Whitford, Lawrence W., Jr. – KIA

Lawrence William Whitford, Jr. - KIA

Preferred Name: Bill
Nickname/Call Sign: Misty 136
Date of Birth: June 9, 1929
Highest Military Grade: 0-6 – Colonel
Hometown: Cedar Falls, IA
Headed West Date: November 2, 1969
Biography
Pilot Information
Album

Lawrence William Whitford Jr. graduated from Cedar Falls High School in the class of 1947. His father, L.W. “Mon” Whitford, was a longtime University of Northern Iowa baseball coach.

Lawrence went on and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University. Upon graduation, Whitford was commissioned as an officer after completing the Air Force ROTC program.

While in the service Whitford met his wife Patrice Joan Lee, they were married in November 1953 outside of Dallas, Texas. The couple had two children, Nancy and Larry Jr. The family moved from base to base all across the country. They lived in places like Indiana, Florida, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and briefly overseas in England.

LtCOL Whitford piloted F-100 Super Sabre jets and received two Air Medals during his service. In February 1969 he was sent to Southeast Asia and assigned to the 416th Tactical Fighter Squadron in the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing, better known as their radio call sign “Misty”. The Mistys conducted classified missions over Laos. Their mission was to identify and intercept enemy supply lines along the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail. This was an extremely dangerous assignment. The Mistys had a 28 percent casualty rate and infiltrated deep behind enemy lines.

On November 2, 1969, LT COL Whitford and his navigator, Michigan native 1LT Carroll, departed their airbase in South Vietnam on a visual reconnaissance mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. During the flight Whitford radioed he was running low on fuel. Whitford’s F-100 never returned to base. Several months later, a damaged plane thought to be the plane flown by Carroll and Whitford was found in the area with no bodies inside. Both men were declared missing in action by the Air Force.

Later, in 1978, the Department of Defense reclassified the airmen as “presumed killed.”(1)

Bill’s daughter, Nancy Whitford Eger,  has never given up on finding her father.

Lawrence has a grave marker at Arlington National Cemetery, and is honored

Sources: (1) iowaveterans.org; honorstates.org; findagrave.com;

Units Assigned

2/1969 416th Tactical Fighter Squadron in the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing,31st Tactical Fighter Wing (F-100)

Awards & Decorations

Air Medal
Air Medal (2)
Purple Heart
Purple Heart
National Defense Service Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal
Vietnam Service Medal
Vietnam Service Medal
Presidential Unit Citation
Air Force Presidential Unit Citation
Vietnam Cross Of Gallantry
Vietnam Cross of Gallantry
AF Good Conduct Medal
Air Force Good Conduct Medal
US Air Force Pilot Badge
United States Aviator Badge Air Force

Flight Info

F-100

Military & Civilian Education

Military Education:

  •  Air Force ROTC

Civilian Education:

  • 1947 Cedar Falls High School
  • BS, Iowa State University

Whitford Lawrence W 10
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