American War Hero · Korean War · Notice Nearby
No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the service and the writing, not an invented face.
Charles J. Loring Jr.
October 2, 1918 – unaccounted for since November 22, 1952
Born Portland, Maine
Loss location: Near Sniper Ridge, North Korea (crash location)
Major, 80th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 8th Fighter-Bomber Wing; F-80C close support, Korea
Missing in action — DPAA lists Maj. Charles Joseph Loring Jr. as Unaccounted For (analytical category: Deferred). On November 22, 1952, he piloted F-80C 49-1830 from Suwon on a dive-bombing run against gun positions near Sagiwon / Sniper Ridge. Other pilots reported the aircraft hit and a crash with no sign he left the airplane. Remains have not been returned to U.S. custody. The Medal of Honor citation is a public record of the dive, not a recovery.
Charles Joseph Loring Jr. was a Portland, Maine, fighter pilot who had already been shot down in Europe and come home from a German camp when the Air Force sent him to Korea. In 1952 he flew the F-80 with the 80th Fighter-Bomber Squadron from Suwon.
On November 22 he led a four-ship close-support flight against gun positions that were working United Nations ground troops near Sniper Ridge. The official Medal of Honor citation states that his aircraft was hit in the dive, that he turned onto active emplacements northwest of the briefed target, and that he flew the Shooting Star into those guns. Other pilots reported a crash and explosion. They did not report a parachute.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency still lists him unaccounted for. A later administrative finding of death, and memorial markers in Maine, Arlington, and Honolulu, are not identified remains. This register will not treat a citation as a grave. It will not invent last words in the cockpit. The documentation is a wingmen's crash report, a public medal text, and a ledger that remains open.
No rights-safe official portrait is hosted here. A later Maine airfield carried the name. That is a public honor. It is not a recovery.
- Publication
- NN-HERO-1950-005
- Content hash
- d88e07df d18683b4 52f3264b c06c11f0 31fcc4f9 730c6de5 6d96abf8 b1b9aa82
- Base anchor
- 0x1e670a c4cf68e0 1e991ce9 e0bf4459 e42fa0c9 a1c80d2c e5abe3b6 dd17e1e5 5d
Base stores the content hash, publication number, memorial id, and timestamp — not the full obituary text. The complete memorial remains on Notice Nearby. This is not a legal affidavit.