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Post by corsair67 on Jan 28, 2006 22:13:05 GMT 12
The photo below of Sgt. Vance Drummond (from Hamilton) was taken in Korea while serving as a Meteor pilot with 77SQN. He was shot down by a MiG-15 on 1 Dec 1951 near Pyongyang, and after managing to sucessfully eject from his damaged Meteor, he ended up spending the rest of the war as a PoW of the North Koreans & Chinese. Below is a picture of the official telegram the Drummond family recieved to advise them of Vance's capture by the North Koreans. He later served in the Vietnam, flying as a Forward Air Controller with the US Air Force. During the Vietnam War, he received the DFC, DFC (US), Air Medal (US), Bronze Star (US) and the Cross of Gallantry (South Vietnam). After returning to Australia, Wing Commander Drummond was killed when his Mirage aircraft (A3-77) crashed into the sea near Newcastle on 17 May 1967.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 28, 2006 22:34:52 GMT 12
That's interesting, the record books show only one New Zealander was captured in the Korean War, one Graham Garland of Cambridge (yep, my home town!) Perhaps being in the RAAF, Drummond was not considered a NZer? Had he renounced his citizenship and become an Aussie I wonder? Where did you find these photos? The latest FlyPast (coming to NZ stores next week or so) should interest you forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52270
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Post by phil82 on Jan 28, 2006 22:43:12 GMT 12
Drummond was the CO of 3 Sqn RAAF at the time he was killed. He was involved in a 2 0n 2 tactic and failed to pull out of an attacking manoeuvre at 35000' and was last seen disappearing into cloud at 22000'over the sea 50 miles NE of Newcastle. There was no ejection, and no radio calls. He also flew in Vietnam on FAC patrols.
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Post by corsair67 on Jan 28, 2006 22:44:40 GMT 12
Dave, I 'borrowed' them from the AWM, and you can read a little more about it here - www.awm.gov.au/korea/faces/drummond/drummond.htmVance apparently joined the RAAF in 1949, but I don't know if he would have had to give up his NZ citizenship back then or not. Anyway, we were all part of the Empire back then! I wonder if he'd been rejected by the RNZAF?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 10, 2019 13:58:16 GMT 12
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Post by mcmaster on Apr 10, 2019 16:52:44 GMT 12
Cool. How anything survived in that salty sludge is amazing.
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Post by Mustang51 on Apr 11, 2019 21:45:17 GMT 12
Same in Lake Victoria where pilots from No.2 OTU practiced shadow gunnery. Think from memory there is a Vengeance in there to this day. A search through P.40, P-51, Spit record cards may reveal more in Lake Vic. Think flying is a bit optimistic.........
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