“It is my duty, as a member of the Air Rescue Service, to save life and to aid the injured. I will be prepared at all times to perform my assigned duties quickly and efficiently, placing these duties before personal desires and comforts. These things I do that others may live.”

Pararescueman Killed in Action

Airman First Class Pleiman was a member of the 33rd Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron. On March 14, 1966, he was a crew member of a Grumman Albatross (HU-16B) on a rescue mission for two airmen, when it was hit by enemy fire and sunk in the Gulf of Tonkin east of Nghe An Province, North Vietnam. The HU-16 Albatross was developed in the late '40s as an amphibious aircraft for over-water reconnaissance, transport, and search-and-rescue. Although the Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard all operated the HU-16, only the Air Force used it in Vietnam. Aircraft and crews were assigned for temporary duty from the 33rd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, Naha AB, Japan. The HU-16s were usually based at DaNang Air Base in northern South Vietnam. They conducted SAR missions off the North Vietnamese coast from an orbit point well north of the Demilitarized Zone. From that location HU-16 crews could respond quickly to SAR requirements offshore southern North Vietnam.  On 14 March 1966, the HU-16 was orbiting over the Gulf of Tonkin when an F-4 was hit by AAA fire. The F-4C crew managed to get over water before ejecting. The HU-16 and Navy SAR forces were alerted that two survivors were about a mile offshore. The HU-16 was first on station, supported by fixed-wing aircraft. When the HU-16 landed, the Albatross drew artillery and mortar fire from emplacements ashore as well as small-arms fire from sampans headed out to capture the downed F-4 crewmen. Airman Pleiman jumped into the water and attempted to assist the first survivor aboard his amphibian when it was hit by an artillery shell and exploded in flames, leaving eight men in the water. A Navy SH-3 SAR helicopter was able to pick up one survivor before being forced from the area with combat damage. A second SH-3 operating under cover of supporting fixed-wing aircraft, picked up four more survivors.  A Navy UH-2 later picked up the last survivor. The rescued HU-16 crewmen stated that A1C Hilton was killed before the Albatross was abandoned and that A1C Pleiman was floating face-down in the water afterwards. Neither Hilton nor Pleiman were recovered. Airman Pleiman was classified as Killed in Action/Body not Recovered. On 15 Dec 1988 the Vietnamese turned over remains which, on 13 Apr 1989, were  identified by Joint Task Force Full Accounting as those of A1C James E. Pleiman.
Documents Concerning Loss of HU-16 March 14, 1966
Details Concerning Airman Pleiman's Death Extracted from the book "PJ's in Vietnam by Robert LaPointe"
USAF Pararescue Memorial Parkway honoring PJs  from Ohio who were Killed in Action