Roger Locher

Who is Roger Locher?

Roger Clinton Locher is a former F-4D Phantom weapons officer and pilot who during the Vietnam War and Operation Linebacker was shot down only 64 km from Hanoi, North Vietnam. The 23 days Locher spent behind enemy lines evading capture was a record for downed airmen during the war. USAF General Vogt "shut down the war" and sent 119 aircraft to recover him. His rescue was the deepest inside North Vietnam during the entire War.

When his aircraft, F-4D 650784, was shot down by a Shenyang J-6 on May 10, 1972, Locher was on his third combat tour and had over 407 combat missions. He was one of the leading MIG killers in Vietnam with three kills. No one saw him eject or his parachute open, and it was unknown whether he had died or been captured. Over the next two weeks, U.S. air crews in the area tried to raise him on the radio without success. The North Vietnamese did not add his name to the roster of captured airmen, which gave the Americans some hope. Traveling only at dusk and dawn, over three weeks Locher traveled about 12 miles, evading farmers and living off the land.

On June 1, Locher was finally able to successfully contact a flight of F-4 aircraft overhead. General John Vogt, commanding general of the Seventh Air Force, committed to rescue him and canceled the scheduled attack on Hanoi, diverting all of the available aircraft to assist in his rescue. Despite the proximity of the Yên Bái MiG airfield only 5 miles away and its well-developed anti-aircraft defenses, there were no losses during his rescue.