Jerry Knoester: I was at Takhli in 73. I am familiar with the takeoff accident mishap. I was working the night shift, at 9 pm, fully loaded with 12, each weighted 500 pound bomb. word around said main landing gear collapse. The night sky lit up, shrapnel rained down the base and in town. But what got me intrigued that two squadrons of f-111 took off for their sortie mission, but only a few came back from their two hour sortie run. The expediter trucks were waiting for their return. I had a friend pilot, a Major, he was not one of the returnees. Some figured they may have landed at another base in Thailand, some thought they were shot down, the next few days, nothing was mentioned of the fate of the missing F-111's or their pilots. Do some of you in this feed know more or have more info on this? I would like to know. Thank you.

Bert Marshall, thank you for this wonderful photo of Jessica 67-072. Here is the last picture of this wonderful airplane. It was the same airplane mentioned above that had the landing gear break on takeoff 21 Feb 1973 with 2 Mk-82s. I still have the nose landing gear door (one of the few remaining pieces) hanging in my garage. Jessica is painted on the door, along with the tail number. (2 photos Eric Puschmann 67-072 'Jessica')