American War Hero · Vietnam War · Notice Nearby
No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the service and the writing, not an invented face.
Hubert C. Nichols Jr.
February 7, 1929 – unaccounted for since September 1, 1966
Born Pensacola, Escambia County, Florida
Loss location: Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam, northwest of Dong Hoi (loss location)
Major (promoted Colonel while missing), U.S. Air Force; pilot, 14th Air Commando Wing (TDY 602nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, Nakhon Phanom); A-1E Skyraider (tail 52-132648, Sandy 31), SAR escort September 1, 1966
Missing in action — DPAA lists Maj. Hubert Campbell Nichols Jr. as Unaccounted For (Active Pursuit), profile a0Jt0000000KYF6EAO (verified 2026-09-24). Pilot of A-1E Skyraider 52-132648 leading a two-plane nighttime search-and-rescue cover near Dong Hoi, North Vietnam, September 1, 1966; wingman lost visual after a hard left turn under 37mm fire; burning aircraft reported; no parachute or electronic signal confirmed; SAR suspended for heavy ground fire. Remains not recovered. Memorialized on the Courts of the Missing, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Active Pursuit is not a recovered grave.
Hubert Campbell Nichols Jr. was born in Pensacola, Florida, on February 7, 1929, and entered the Air Force from that state. By September 1966 he was a major flying the A-1E Skyraider — the prop-driven Sandy that escorted rescue helicopters into country too hot for jets to linger.
On September 1 he led Sandy 31 and Sandy 32 from Nakhon Phanom on a search for a downed F-104 pilot northwest of Dong Hoi. After relieving Navy cover he was working the pattern when heavy 37mm fire forced a left turn. His wingman was hit, lost sight of him, and fought a damaged airplane home. Nearby Navy pilots reported a burning aircraft. No chute. No beeper that closed the file. Search stopped under ground fire. While carried missing, the Air Force promoted him to colonel.
DPAA profile a0Jt0000000KYF6EAO still lists him Unaccounted For, analytical category Active Pursuit. He is on the Courts of the Missing in Honolulu and on the Wall in Washington. Radio Hanoi claimed shoot-downs that day. It did not return a body with his name.
- Publication
- NN-HERO-1965-022
- Content hash
- 47785739 bd5b7e97 e1eb7aa5 d52688c9 3a17c75b 265fb4b9 ca1e33a9 847d0182
- Base anchor
- 0x61621a 65dcffde 2f0ee4b4 51d77b3c 1beaa55f 47ebc167 2400d4aa 6315e813 d1
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