Feb. 3, 1963 - A B-26 fighter-bomber carrying two U.S. Air Force captains and a Vietnamese observer crashed while strafing Communist guerrillas today. Witnesses said there were no survivors. The death toll of American servicemen in South Vietnam thus rose to 57, of whom 29 have been killed in combat. The twin-engine plane carried Vietnamese markings, part of the effort of South Vietnamese authorities to divert attention from the combat role played by American servicemen in the jungle war. Armed with machine guns, rockets, and bombs, it crashed while shooting up a Viet Cong unit that had attacked a South Vietnamese post 110 miles southwest of Saigon. The post was held. In Washington, the Air Force listed the two captains as Capt. John R. Shaughnessy Jr. (left), whose wife, Mrs. Sandra Shaughnessy, lives in Houston, Tex., and Capt. John P. Bartley (right), whose wife, Mrs. Betty J. Bartley, lives in San Angelo, Tex.
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