Charles Kennedy Lovelace

Major
8TH BOMB SQD, 34TH TAC GRP, 405TH FW, 13TH AF
United States Air Force
22 January 1935 - 22 June 1965
New Bern, NC
Panel 02E Line 016

13TH AF

8TH BOMB SQD
B-57 Canberra

USAF Pilot

DFC, Purple Heart, Air Medal (multiple), National Defense, Vietnam Service, Vietnam Campaign

The database page for Charles Kennedy Lovelace

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand,
and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr
Pilot Officer, Royal Air Force
Killed in flight 11 Dec 1941, aged 19

From his crewmate's cousin.

Mission Notes

The B-57 Canberra bombers of the 8th and 13th Bomb Squadrons were deployed to South Vietnam beginning in late 1964 and undertook a variety of missions including both strike and "pathfinder" missions for other aircraft.

On the night of 21/22 June 1965, Captains Charles K. Lovelace, pilot, and William E. Cordero, navigator, launched from Tan Son Nhut Air Base in B-57B tail number 53-3910 for a night flare mission (i.e., a pathfinder mission for other strike aircraft) over North Vietnam's southernmost province in the vicinity of the Lao/NVN border. The B-57B went down and both crewmen were lost.

Later in the war their remains were recovered and laid to rest in Section 46 of Arlington National Cemetery, adjacent to the Memorial Amphitheater.





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With all respect
Jim Schueckler, former CW2, US Army
Ken Davis, Commander, United States Navy (Ret)
Channing Prothro, former CAP Marine
Last updated 08/10/2009