ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 59452
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| Date: | Monday 24 March 1952 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  North American F-86A-5-NA Sabre |
| Owner/operator: | 334th FISqn /4th FIWg USAF |
| Registration: | 49-1140 |
| MSN: | 161-133 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Other fatalities: | 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Mig Alley, over Yalu River Estuary, Yellow Sea -
 North Korea
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | USAF Base K-14, Seoul/Kimpo, South Korea(RKSS) |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
F-86A-5 Sabre 49-1140 flown by 1st Lt James D. Carey (4th FIW, 334th FIS). Reported loss in combat after collision with a MiG-15bis of the 148th GIAP (97th IAD) flown by Y. V.Filippov (KIA). Lost on combat operations 24 March 1952. Four F-86s attacked three MiG-15s, jumped by two more MiGs, aircraft disappeared in the area nicknamed "Mig Alley", over Yalu River Estuary, Yellow Sea.
However, according to a newspaper report ("Daily Press, Hampton, Virginia, October 31 1993):
"SHE THOUGHT HE DIED...
For 41 years, Nancy Whittaker has believed that her husband met his death when his F-86 jet disappeared somewhere over North Korea after a 1952 dogfight with Russian MiG fighters. Two weeks ago, she picked up the morning paper and discovered that 1st Lt. James D. Carey may have parachuted to safety - and ultimately been transferred to a prisoner of war camp in the former Soviet Union.
She also realized that her husband could still be alive.
She doesn't really believe it's possible. ''I'll just be completely surprised if he was captured and taken to Russia,'' said Whittaker. ''I think he's in the bottom of the Yalu River. That's where I've always thought he was.''
The Yalu River lines the border between North Korea and China.
''I was at breakfast when I read that news,'' she said. ''I thought, `For God's sake, what now?' I still find it hard to believe. I don't see how ... I could be wrong, but I don't have too much hope that he'd be alive.''
The Sept. 27 story, from The Associated Press, said the State Department had confronted Russian authorities with evidence that hundreds of U.S. Korean War prisoners were secretly moved to the former Soviet Union, imprisoned and never returned. The story was based on a leaked government report.
''I was plenty shocked,'' said Whittaker, who grew up in Phoebus and lives next door to the house she was born in. ''They could have told me something before it showed up in print. And what will I do if he shows up? I guess the three of us will just live together.''
The third person is her husband, Sherrell. They wed in 1972, 19 years after Whittaker was notified that Carey was missing in action. Sherrell, a former TWA and National Airlines pilot, suffered an aneurysm in 1987, followed by two strokes. Now blind, he requires 24-hour care.
The telegram arrived on March 23, 1952, two days after the birth of their son James D. Carey Jr. She was still in the hospital. ''It is with deep regret that I have to inform you ... '' began the wire from an Air Force general. When she read that, she figured he was gone for good.
''I had no hope, right from the first,'' she said. ''I just didn't think it was possible, in the kind of weather they had over there. I didn't have any optimism about it. Normally, I'm an optimistic person.
Two weeks later, a letter arrived from Maj. James Martin, who was flying with Carey during that final battle.
''During a sustained attack by the enemy aircraft, we were separated,'' he wrote. ''The last time I saw his airplane, it appeared to be undamaged and under control.'' He lost visual and radio contact. He added, ''There is every possibility that he was successful in abandoning his aircraft ... ''
She didn't believe it. Whittaker, a thin, angular woman with close-cropped blonde hair and a twinkle in her eye, is the type of person who keeps the hurt inside. She says she cried initially but immediately started putting Carey's disappearance behind her. ''I just tried to live one day at a time,'' she said.
She didn't have much choice. Her baby, James D. Carey Jr., died of congenital heart disease on July 4, 1952, at age 3+ months. The infant's picture sits on the mantle.
The confirming telegram from the Air Force arrived in December. All prisoners had been exchanged, it read. Her husband ''was not among those repatriated.'' The investigation, it read, would continue.
The U.S. government, through diplomatic channels, asked Moscow for information on prisoner transfers in May 1954 and July 1956. Both times, the Soviet government denied any knowledge of the prisoners.
Until recently, the U.S. government has publicly maintained that it had no knowledge of U.S. prisoners of war left behind after war, in which 54,246 Americans were killed. Another 8,140 were listed as unaccounted for.
A 1992 book, Soldiers of Misfortune, documented that U.S. authorities were well aware both during and after the war that U.S. prisoners were being taken to camps in North Korea and China and had information that some had been secreted to the former Soviet Union.
The State Department says it doesn't know if Carey or any of the other missing servicemen listed in the news report were actually taken to the Soviet Union. But it says the possibility exists.
Whittaker isn't waiting for the Defense Department to finish its investigation and release a report. She wrote a letter Oct. 6 to Edward Ross, the Pentagon's top official for POW-MIA affairs. ''I asked him what they based their information on, and why they didn't notify me ahead of time,'' she said.
First Lt. James D. Carey's picture still rests on his wife's mantle, not far from James Jr.'s. It's been 41 years, but Nancy Whittaker can rattle off her husband's service number, ''A01910978,'' without hesitation.
They were high school sweethearts, spending their junior and senior years together at Hampton High. They got married at St. Mary's Catholic Church on Fort Monroe. After a honeymoon at Nags Head, N.C., they moved to Las Vegas so they could be together while he attended gunnery school at Nellis Air Force Base. When he got orders for Okinawa, she returned to the Peninsula.
Two years after he disappeared, she moved from North Mallory Street to her present home. Built of stones from a dismantled battery at Fort Monroe, it adjoins Mill Creek, which flows between her back yard and the fort. On the couch inside, she remembers her lost husband.
''He liked children,'' she said. ''When we were in Las Vegas, he'd be at the pool, and he'd always be playing with the children. His sister had a little boy; her husband was killed in World War II. He was always taking him around.''
Jim, she said, was a patient man. ''He wasn't aggressive. He was a good pilot. He loved to fly. That was number one with him. He would have been the first one to sign up to be an astronaut,'' she said.
One of his squadron mates, in fact, did. Carey served with Virgil ''Gus'' Grissom, who along with two other astronauts, died when a fire swept through the command module of Apollo I on Jan. 27, 1967. A snapshot of Grissom is in Carey's scrapbook.
She thumbs through a yearbook from his senior year of aviation school. ''Up until the time Jim was killed, this is his graduating class, all these fellas. I wrote down when they went down, when they were killed.''
She reads off the dates. ''January '51, September '51, August '51, January '52. Here's Jim here.'' She didn't write a date next to his picture.
She thinks of him often. ''Oh, sure,'' she said. ''He's part of my life.''
Her second husband, she said, ''was never jealous of Jim. I've always had the picture on the mantle.''
Providing 24-hour care for Sherrell, a former TWA and National Airlines pilot originally from Hampton, is naturally trying. He can't feed or bathe himself. Whittaker doesn't get out of the house much these days.
''I like to go to the grocery store,'' she said. ''That's about the extent of my social life.''
Whittaker isn't bitter about the loss of her husband in the service of his country. ''That's what he wanted to do,'' she said. ''He wanted it.
And if the government has been holding on to knowledge of U.S. prisoners of war being held in Russia, it doesn't concern her. ''I just accept it, and that's it. What's the point of wailing and hollering and beating on the bandbox when you can't change what is?''
Whittaker does hope to get a reply from the Pentagon, just to satisfy her curiosity. ''That would be the polite thing to do,'' she said. ''Even if it's just a form letter. I'm not expecting any great answers, but some form of reply.''
And despite all that's happened to her, she said she still retains an optimistic outlook on life. ''Very much so,'' she said. ''I don't see any point in going around with a long face, boring people with your problems.
"Everything in life, even terrible things, has some humor somewhere. Funny things happen, and you've got to laugh.''
EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS
Lt. Bill Littlefield wrote to Nancy Whittaker in March of 1952. Littlefield was in Japan the day Lt. James D. Carey was lost and learned about the event when he returned to Korea. Here is an excerpt from that letter in which Littlefield shares what he knows:
He was flying the wing of our Squadron Co., Maj. Martin.
They were jumped by 2 MIGs and turned hard into the MIGs.
After they broke off, Maj. Martin called and told Jim to reverse his turn and turn hard the other direction.
As Maj. M. turned, he noticed that Jim was still turning in the original direction. About that time, 2 more jumped the Maj. and he had to fight them off. Nothing more was heard from Jim. The boys searched the area but could find nothing. They were low on fuel and couldn't stay and look for too long a time.
They were at a fairly high altitude when this happened which would have given Jim plenty of time to bail out. I think that if his plane was hit, that he bailed out. If he did, there is a very good chance that he is all right. He was a very level and cool-headed boy. I have flown with him an awfully lot and know that he is an excellent pilot. One of the best. Therefore, I do feel certain that he did get out of it and is all right. I suppose there is nothing to do now except wait and hope, and we are all doing that, along with you.
I would also like to tell you how very happy Jim was the day he found out that he was a brand new Father. His eyes lit up and there was happiness written all over him.
I hope that you and the baby are both O.K. and please don't stop hoping for Jim.
At right is an excerpt from a letter by Maj. James F. Martin in April of 1952. Martin was the flight leader on the mission when Carey was lost. Martin made several attempts to contact Carey after he became missing following the air battle."
Pilot - 1st Lt James D. Carey (Service Number: AO1910978) declared as MIA. Body of pilot not found/not recovered. Formally declared as MIA/KIA effective 31 December 1953, memorial at Hampton, Virginia.
Note also: Chinese ace Han Decai also claimed a F-86 this date.
Sources:
1. L.Krylov, Y.Tepsurkaev, I Seidov, A.German, Gordon and Rigmant,B.Cull, D.Newton, W.Thompson,X.Zhang,V.Zabelin,M.Mikhin.
2. https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/confirmation-of-han-decai-claims.t6963/
3. http://yocumusa.com/sweetrose//images/2018sabrefuguide/4fiw199.htm
4. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18411703/james-d_-carey
5. https://www.koreanwar.org/html/4411/korean-war-project-virginia-ao1910978-1lt-james-desmond-carey
6. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1949.html
7. Daily Press Newspaper, Hampton, VA 31/10/93: https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19931013-1993-10-13-9310130079-story.html+&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 25-Apr-2011 01:44 | Daniel Nole | Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 25-Apr-2011 13:18 | Anon. | Updated [Location, Narrative] |
| 26-Aug-2011 07:11 | Uli Elch | Updated [Operator, Location, Departure airport, Narrative] |
| 07-Dec-2018 21:04 | Anon. | Updated [Location, Source, Narrative] |
| 30-Jan-2020 20:55 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 30-Jan-2020 20:56 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 07-Feb-2020 12:05 | Iwosh | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 09-Apr-2020 18:46 | Reno Raines | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
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