European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 12, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Finally Angom polished daughters7 research reveals Fate of fliers lost during korean War by Robert Burns the associated press n dec. 5,1950, the Day after capt. Charles e. Mcdonough was shot Down in his korean War spy plane an air Force Telegram arrived in Glen Rose Texas. With official regret and a note of haunting finality it informed his wife Mary to that the plane had � disappeared. All possible search completed it said. The search though was anything but completed. In a sense it had not yet begun. Nearly 44 years after the air Force gave up on Mcdonough and the three other americans aboard his Silvery rb-45 reconnaissance bomber new information has come to Light evidence that Points to soviet involvement not Only in the shoo Down but also in exploiting Mcdonough after his capture the evidence not yet publicly disclosed by the . Government contradicts recent denials by Moscow that the former soviet Union had played any role. The loss of the rb-45 and its Crew on dec. 4,1950, in t even mentioned in the air Force s official history of the korean War although it notes that two planes of that Type flew in the War. The unmentioned Mcdonough plane Tail number 8-015, made three Mcdonough of new London conn., was commander of the three plane detachment that flew missions mainly Over North Korea from Yokota a Japan. At 31, this was his second War he flew bombers in Europe in world War ii. The rb-45, Well before the u and now an artefact of the cold War was no Ordinary plane. It was converted from a Jet bomber As the most advanced photo reconnaissance plane in the world and this was its first wartime use. The air Force knew the rb-45 was a target of soviet intelligence. Moscow was aware that . Air Force planes were overflying its territory throughout the 1950s, but it did t become an International Issue until the soviets shot Down Francis Gary Powers in a Cia operated u spy plane on May 1,1960. This Story of the rb-45 is based on interviews with relatives of two of the four crewmen officers who knew them and retired korean War rb-45 pilots As Well As declassified War records and other government documents. Leading the Effort to unravel the Case Are Jeanne dear the Only child of Charles and Mary to Mcdonough and Nancy Dean daughter of col. John r. Lovell a top air Force intelligence officer who was based at the Pentagon but happened to be aboard the plane for reasons that May never be fully known. For dear 44, of fort Worth Texas and Dean 62, of Wheaton md., the search has been complicated by the secret nature of the rb-45. Records that could shed Light on the fateful Mission have not been found. Although never officially acknowledged by Washington _ men who flew the rb-45 in Korea say their top secret missions sometimes took them deep into chinese and soviet airspace. More routinely it flew photo reconnaissance Over North Korea. Louis Carrington of Tyler Texas one of the two other pilots Ini Mcdonough s unit recalls that Mac and his Crew attired in Blue flight suits took off into Clear skies from Nancy Lovell Dean left and Jeanne Mcdonough dear research korean War records at a National archives building in Suitland my. _ a  Yokota at about lunchtime on dec. 4. He remembers Mcdonough 6-foot and Blue eyed As a likable accomplished robust Mam he could do anything Carrington  John Jack Lovell then 46, worked directly for the head of air Force intelligence maj. Gen. Charles p. Cabell. Dean says she recently found in the National archives a declassified report stamped top secret that was signed by Cabell and included a proposal for using the rb-45 for reconnaissance Over the soviet Union. It was dated oct. 5,195 �  Lovell s presence on the plane is a mystery a was not a regular Crew member but Dean believes he had a hand in overseeing the rb-45 s spy role. Howard Barkey who worked with Lovell in army intelligence during world War ii says an officer with As much knowledge of secret . War plans As Lovell normally would not be allowed to Fly Over enemy held territory. He was a Leader and the qualities of leadership require sometimes taking risks Barkey says. He figures Lovell had responsibility for theirb-45 program and therefore wanted to see firsthand what risks its Crews were  recalls helping her father pack on nov. 23, thanksgiving Day. He left that night saying Only that he was headed to the far East. She never heard from him again. The last word from the rb-45 Crew was a routine radio Contact 100 minutes after Takeoff signalling their entry into North korean airspace. Then silence. The crash site was never pinpointed. No bodies were recovered. When the daughters of Lovell and Mcdonough started researching the incident in detail both were surprised to learn that Many records from that period Are lost Many Are still classified secret off limits to most citizens. Dear began her quest in Earnest in 1992 when at the prodding of an aunt she called the air Force casualty office at Randolph fab Texas to ask for the file on her father her family had been told before that his service records had burned in a records Center fire in St. Louis in the 1970s, but this time the casualty official said she would Check and Call Back. -., ". A a the return Call was a Bombshell her father s name was on a list of . Airmen provided by the russian government of was absolutely stunned dear recalled. But no one could Tell her what the list was whether she should think her father had been taken by the russians. They did t have a clue she said. The russian list indicates that Mcdonough and other . Pos were interrogated by soviet officers. Indeed the russians later released a copy of a Mcdonough interrogation that says a soviet prepared the questions and a chinese Comrade translated the answers. Still Moscow denies it Ever had Contact with the rb-45 Crew. "./,.,./. I. " dear began digging. She attended congressional hearings in Washington and searched air Force archives at Maxwell fab ala., and at the National archives in Washington and Suitland my. She pored Over historical records at the air Force Academy in Colorado Springs colo., collected books on the korean War and the air Force and tracked Down anyone who might be of help. She found Dean who coincidentally had begun her own research. Dean helped by her husband Dick fired off letters organized documents and plotted her search strategy from a basement War room in her Home. Mary to Mcdonough stayed in Glen Rose after her husband was listed As missing. She never changed houses never married again. But she did t sit idly. She sought out her husband s colleagues when they returned from the War. She wrote to families of other missing airmen and urged Mem to press for a full accounting. In a letter to president Eisenhower on Jan. 5,1954, she wrote this matter is More important to me and to the thousands in my position than anything else. And we re not going to forget  _ finally thanks to her daughter s persistence and quite apart from the government s own efforts an answer came in october 1993 Mcdonough died about two weeks after his plane was shot Down. Not All details Are known and the body has not been recovered. My Mother had been waiting for 40 years dear says. For us it s like a Miracle to know for sure he died and to Complete their grieving. She said the family plans to hold a memorial service for her father on sunday. Ironically the clinching evidence came not from . Government files but from Russia whose Mig fighters shot Down Mcdonough s plane near the Yalu River that separates North Korea from China. Mcdonough parachuted from the plane. A photo of a rb-45 reconnaissance plane flown by capt. Charles Mcdonough. The soviets were eager to learn More about the plane the most advanced spy Craft of its time. An undated photo of air Force co. Pm r. Lovell the one Page document which  had died was found in russian archives by Paul Cole of the research firm defense forecasts inc., who has extensively studied soviet links to korean War Mia cases. Dear got a copy.  It was dated dec. 18,1950exactly two weeks after the shoo Down but did not indicate the exact Date or cause of death. Routing notations on the document indicate it circulated at the highest Levels of the soviet military staff in Moscow. I am informing you that the Pilot from the shot Down b 45 aircraft died in route and the interrogation was not finished said the note in russian. It was signed by marshal Stepan Krasovskiy the senior soviet military adviser to China and addressed to marshal Pavel bait skin chief of the general staff in Moscow. This fits with recollections of the Only american known to have talked to Mcdonough after he was shot Down. Retired air Force Pilot Hamilton b. Shawe jr., of Reno nev., said he spent about three Days with Mcdonough As a pow in a bombed out prison in sin Iju in Northern Korea starting about dec. 14. He says he last saw Mcdonough being taken from the prison and that he was in such bad condition that it seemed unlikely he could live much longer. Shawe said Mcdonough told him he had parachuted from the burning wreckage of the rb-45. He later suffered severe frostbite while trying to evade capture in the Frozen wilds. When he sought food at an isolated korean House air Force capt. Charles Mcdonough missing Pilot the occupants turned him in. Shawe reported his Contact with Mcdonough to the air Force in 1953 when he was released from Captivity. On the basis of his information and the Lack of other news the air Force issued a presumptive finding of death on March 1,-1.9.54. -., " a although the Mcdonough family members accept the russian document As evidence that he died they realize it raises other questions where were they taking him when he died what did the soviets want from him what was done with the body. A second russian document obtained by Cole this year makes the soviet link even clearer. The document dated dec. 17,1950, says the rb-45 was shot Down about 45 Miles East of Bandung China just across the Border from sin Iju. The report summarizes what Mcdonough said under a soviet controlled interrogation and asks that russian advisers in Korea help retrieve downed american aircraft and  month. Dear Learned More painful details through a confidential source who interviewed the Mig Pilot. . Andrianov credited with shooting Down the rb-45. Andrianov recalled being told by the soviet officer who interrogated Mcdonough that while Mcdonough was being moved from sin Iju apparently on dec. 18, a sign was Hung on him " War  a crowd of North koreans gathered around the defiant soviets wanted rb-45 the rb-45 was a prime target of soviet intelligence in Korea and for Good reason it was derived i n a crash program m from the world s first Multi Jet bomber the b-45, which also was the first Light bomber fitted to drop atomic bombs and the first Jet aircraft of any Type to be refuelled in flight. Equipped with 10 cameras including one at the tip of the plane s nose the to 45 in 1950 was the most sophisticated reconnaissance plane in the world. Declassified air Force records show . Officials knew it was near the top of soviet. Intelligence agencies list of priority aircraft to capture. The plane was manufactured by North american aviation inc., of Inglewood Calif. A. Jux Ivov the associated press american and beat him to death dear said for that final injustice she and her Mother hold both the North koreans and the former soviet Union responsible though she strongly doubts the american government will Ever seek any sort of  Andrianov said he saw Only one Parachute emerge from the rb-45, Dean now accepts that her father Lovell died in the crash. Since the crash there had been Only two hints of his Fate his name was mentioned in an enemy broadcast picked up by . Intelligence in China on May 21,1951, which suggested he had been captured in Korea. His was among 71 names of americans listed by the . Far East coma As men positively identified As remaining in the hands of the communists after the final Exchange of Allied and communist pos in september 1953. Yet he never was officially listed As a pow. Dean recently obtained the list from a declassified dec. 14, 1954, report in the files of the . Far East command. Nearly 10 months earlier on feb. 28,1954, the government had declared Lovell dead. Whether or not the mystery of the rb-45 is Ever fully unravelled Mary to Mcdonough will always remember the Good Days before her husband left for Korea and wonder about a cryptic departing remark on the sensitivity of his Mission. " i remember he said there is something i wish i could Tell you but i can to " 16 the stars and stripes monday december 12,1994 the stars and stripes 17