1928 "My Weekly Reader" magazine made its debut
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on September 21:
1415 Frederick III Innsbruck Austria, German Emperor (1440-1493)
1452 Girolamo Savonarola Florentine monk/preacher/"reformer"
1756 John Loudon McAdam created macadam road surface (asphalt)
1788 Margaret Smith Taylor 1st lady
1817 Carter Littlepage Stevenson Major General (Confederate Army)
1824 Joseph Andrew Jackson Lightburn Brig General (Union volunteers)
1827 Michael Corcoran Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1863
1866 H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells Bromley, England (War of the Worlds)
1886 Teiichi Igarashi Japan, climbed Mt Fuji at age 99
1902 Limari Salminen Finland, 10K run (Olympic-gold-1936)
1909 Kwame Nkrumah President of Ghana (1958-66)
1912 Chuck Jones animator (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck)
1918 Rand Brooks LA Calif, actor (Cpl Boone-Rin Tin Tin)
1931 Larry Hagman Fort Worth Tx, actor (I Dream of Jeannie, JR-Dallas)
1934 Leonard Cohen Montreal, singer/songwriter (Bird on a wire)
1935 Henry Gibson Germantown Pa, comedian (Nashville, Laugh-In's poet)
1940 Bill Kurtis Pensacola Fla, newscaster (The American Parade)
1944 Fannie Flagg Birmingham Ala, actress/comediene (Candid Camera)
1944 Hamilton Jordan political advisor (Crisis, Last Year of Carter Pres)
1947 Stephen King suspense writer (Shining, Kujo)
1948 Michael Finneran diver (1st perfect 10 on 10m platform)
1950 Bill Murray Evanston Ill, comedian (SNL, What About Bob, Stripes)
1955 Richard J Hieb Jamestown ND, astronaut (STS 39, Sk:STS 49)
1962 Grant Fuhr Edmonton Alberta, NHL goalie (Oilers)
1968 Ricki Lake actress(?) (Hairspray)
1928 "My Weekly Reader" magazine made its debut
REMAINS RETURNED 06/94 IDENTIFIED 10/95 CARROLL, ROGER WILLIAM JR. Name: Roger William Carroll, Jr. Rank/Branch: O4/US Air Force Unit: Date of Birth: 20 July 1939 (Dallas TX) Home City of Record: Kansas City MO Loss Date: 21 September 1972 Country of Loss: Laos Loss Coordinates: 191900N 1030900E (UG056368) Status (in 1973): Killed In Captivity Category: 1 Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F4D Other Personnel In Incident: Dwight W. Cook (missing) Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 June 1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. REMARKS: SYNOPSIS: Roger Carroll Jr. was born in Dallas, Texas and moved to Kansas City, Missouri when he was six years old. The oldest child, Roger was very fond of his younger sister and brother. He was raised in a Christian home, was an honor student, and active in sports. Roger knew from an early age that he wanted to be a pilot. Roger entered the University of Kansas to study aviation engineering. While at KU, Roger joined the Air Force and became a navigator on B-47 and B-52 aircraft. Wanting to be a pilot still, Roger took pilot training and earned his wings flying T-38 and F-100 aircraft. After one tour in Vietnam, Roger returned to the States to train other young pilots until he again took training himself, this time on the F-4 Phantom fighter/bomber jet. His second tour of Vietnam began in early 1972. He told his parents, "If anything ever happens to me, don't come looking for me. You won't find me. The aircraft is such a bomb that if one hits the ground or something hits it, it just explodes." Maj. Carroll was assistant to the commander, and did not ordinarily fly combat missions, but begged for the chance to fly, and was allowed to fly twice-weekly missions. On September 21, 1972, Roger and his backseater, Dwight Cook, were sent on a mission over the strategic Plain of Jars region in Laos. The Plain of Jars region of Laos had for years been an intense area of struggle between the communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao armed forces. Millions of U.S. dollars had been secretly committed to the strengthening of anti-communist strongholds in the Plain of Jars for some years. About one year before Carroll and Cook were shot down in this area, Nixon's secret campaign in Laos had become public. The area had been defended with the help of U.S. aircraft; the anti-communist troops, primarily a secret CIA-directed force comprised of some 30,000 indigenous tribesmen, were, in part, kept resupplied by CIA. Because Laos was "neutral" under the terms of the Geneva convention, and because the U.S. continually stated they were not at war with Laos (although we were regularly bombing North Vietnamese traffic along the border and conducted assaults against communist strongholds thoughout the country at the behest of the anti-communist government of Laos), and did not recognize the Pathet Lao as a government entity, the nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos were never recovered. During the mission, Carroll's aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed. Roger's prediction was correct. The largest piece of aircraft remaining was no larger than three feet across. A week after the aircraft crashed, a search party found several pieces of flight clothing and a human hip socket at the site. They found identification that belonged to Cook, but it was evident that the enemy had reached the plane first. Carroll and Cook were classified as having "died in captivity." It is unclear whether the two were captured and later died, were executed on the spot, or perhaps tortured and mutilated as was sometimes deemed the punishment for captured pilots. Neither Carroll nor Cook were promoted after their loss incident, which seems to indicate the U.S. has positive information that they were killed quickly. The Defense Intelligence Agency further expanded Carroll's and Cook's classification to include an enemy knowledge ranking of 1. Category 1 indicates "confirmed knowledge" and includes all personnel who were identified by the enemy by name, identified by reliable information received from escapees or releasees, reported by highly reliable intelligence sources, or identified through analysis of all-source intelligence. By 1980, Carroll and Cook had been classified killed in action because there was no verified information that they were alive. But the Department of Defense still believes the Lao hold the answers to their fate. The Pathet Lao stated that they would release the "tens of tens" of American prisoners they held only from Laos - when agreements were reached with the U.S. to halt their bombing there. Agreements were never made, and no American held in Laos was released, even though nearly 600 Americans were lost in Laos. Tragically, over 10,000 reports have been received by the U.S. relating to the men missing in Southeast Asia, and many authorities believe hundreds of them are alive today. Whether Carroll and Cook are among those said to be still alive is unknown. What seems certain, however, is that our country has a moral and legal obligation to the men who fought in our name. We must do everything we can to bring them home. Roger Carroll's mother died in 1986, still believing her son was alive. The Air Force has never fully informed Roger's family of the events of September 21, 1972.
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