This is the 4th Edition of the Say Their Names, Tell Their Stories, Never Forget!
USN LCDR Dennis S. Pike – MIA 3/23/1972 – Laos
LCDR Dennis S. Pike’s story is one of determination, love, and unwavering hope. Born and raised in Arizona to hard-working parents, Dennis developed a passion for flight as he grew up in the shadow of the aircraft flying in and out of Luke AFB. His childhood dreams were filled with visions of soaring through the skies, but his journey to the cockpit was not without obstacles.
Dennis met his future bride when they were only 13. Both graduated with honors and married shortly after graduation. Dennis chased his dream of flying as he attended ASU as the Air Force Cadet Colonel. His dreams of flying seemed dashed when he failed the flight physical due to a color deficiency. He studied every color vision test book used by the military and practiced standing at attention compressing his spine so he could meet the Navy height standards of 6’1” as he was 6’2”. Finally, he was accepted through an inter-service transfer and attended flight school, passing at the top of the class.
Dennis was a funny and outgoing man, with a loving wife and three children Denise, aged 11; Vincent aged 9, and Shannon aged 2. He played seven different musical instruments and enjoyed singing and entertaining.
LCDR Pike was assigned to Attack Squadron 192, known as the Golden Dragons, aboard the USS Kitty Hawk (CVA 63).
On March 23, 1972, he was the pilot of an A-7E Corsair II (bureau number 157520, call sign “Jury 307”) that took off from the USS Kitty Hawk on a night strike mission against targets of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in southern Laos.
After his first pass over the target, LCDR Pike radioed his wingman that he had either been hit by anti-aircraft artillery fire or was experiencing engine trouble. LCDR Pike was forced to eject over Laos, due to a .65 Cent spacer in the engine which had melted, causing oil pressure to fail. His last transmission to his Company Commander, Robert Taylor was, “I have to leave it, oil pressure problems.”
His wingman observed a cloud of white smoke and shiny particles in the moonlight, and an object tumbling through the air that he thought was LCDR Pike’s ejection seat, but no parachute was sighted. The loss location was over rugged jungle-covered mountains, southwest of the Lao/South Vietnamese border, which made search and recovery efforts difficult. LCDR Pike was not located following the incident, and he remains unaccounted-for.
On March 23, 1972, CDR Robert Taylor was the commanding officer of the KITTY HAWK based Attack Squadron 192 and recalls the March 23 mission:
“We were on a mission just south of the DMZ,” remembers Taylor. “Government forces were being overrun by the Viet Cong, and a T-28 with an American
pilot and Vietnamese observer also went down. We were on target for about forty minutes and finally had to leave. I watched Pike disappear on the way out, and that scene, those ten or fifteen seconds, are embedded in my mind, lived over and over. I was about a mile-and-a-half behind him, saw the smoke come out of his tailpipe and called him up asking if there were any problems. He replied, ‘Yeah, I’ve got some oil pressure problems.’ We were only about twenty miles inside of Laos, and I told him to take a heading toward Da Nang. He rolled out and made the turn from southwest all the way around to the east at five thousand feet. I told him, ‘If you pass three thousand feet and don’t have anything left, then [get] out.’ He replied, ‘Roger that,’ followed by an ‘Uh oh, there goes the engine. Well, see you guys later.'” Pike indicated that he had to eject.
Taylor saw the canopy shatter and a black object came out. Taylor and his wingman saw the ejection but lost visual contact. Taylor is certain that something left the airplane.
LCDR Pike was not located following the incident, and he remains unaccounted-for.
Four days prior to Denny Pike’s aircraft failing, another A7 had failed, but just after it had launched from the carrier. The pilot was recovered. There were questions at that time as to whether to ground the aircraft, but it was kept in the air. This was the 3rd incident of its kind dealing with the A7’s engine.
After LCDR Pike’s aircraft failed, the A7 was grounded. But the North Vietnamese were staging an invasion on the south, and to ground the A7 meant to essentially ground the entire strike force, and there was uncertainty as to the exact cause of the A7 accidents. It was finally concluded that the engine problems had been caused by foreign object damage and the A7 was airborne once more.
On March 24, 1972, the black cars showed up at the Pike home. Lou Ann refused to open the door at first, but when the officers were clear that Dennis was not dead, just MIA, she allowed them in. They told her that in such cases where there was so little information to go on, anything could have happened and for all, they knew he could be a POW by now. Her job was to keep the faith, hope for the best, and continue with life as usual.
Little information has been discovered since this incident. However, conflicting information continues to be provided from various sources. The National Security Agency (NSA) reported LCDR Pikes’ name associated with a list of 21 other men, thought to have been transferred to Russia in 1974. In 2009 a VFA-192 helmet was located by the JTFA, but the villagers were not eager to part with the artifact. LCDR Pike was the only member of that squadron lost in the area.
Of 600 American servicemen lost in Laos during our military involvement in Southeast Asia, not one was released when the war ended. The Pathet Lao insisted that Americans held in Laos would be released from Laos, but the U.S. did not include them in peace agreements reached in Paris in 1973.
Since the wars end, thousands of reports relating to Americans prisoner, missing or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government. The official policy is that no conclusive proof has been obtained that is current or specific enough to act upon. Detractors of this policy say conclusive proof is in hand, but that the willingness or ability to rescue these prisoners does not exist.
Today, Lieutenant Commander Pike is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.
LCDR Pikes’ youngest daughter is RFTW’s very own Shannon Spake!
In January of 2019, the daughters, Denise, and Shannon made the trip to Laos in hopes of reaching their father’s ejection site that had been located in 2015. Despite meticulous planning and fundraising efforts, their expedition was thwarted by a washed-out road, just miles away from their destination. Undeterred, they carried with them a vial of Arizona dirt to honor their father’s memory and sought to connect with locals in search of any information or stories about the American pilot who may have perished on their mountain.
DPAA resurveyed the area in November of 2019 and hoped to excavate it in March of 2020. But Covid delayed those efforts. Ultimately, in September of 2021, they were able to excavate and planned to return to complete the job sometime this year.
By the time this newsletter is posted, Shannon will be enroute back to Laos with two other MIA Daughters and a KIA Son, all visiting their fathers’ suspected impact sites. If you would like to support Shannon via Venmo at https://venmo.com/u/Shannon-Spake-1 or contact her directly for additional details.
This is why we ride!
Live a Life worthy of their Sacrifice!
Darin “Lurch” Koch
