RONALD L BOND
Hometown:
HADDONFIELD
County:
Camden
Status:
Missing In Action
Rank:
CAPT
Branch of Service:
Air Force
Country of Incident:
LAOS
Date of Casualty:
September 30, 1971
Date of Birth:
December 14, 1947
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Ronald Leslie
Bond was born in Camden, NJ, on December 14, 1947, to Mr. and Mrs.
Errol Q. Bond, Sr. His home of record is Haddonfield, NJ, where he
grew up. Ronald had one brother, Errol. At the age of 12, Ron was on
the Haddonfield Little League Team that went to the state finals. In
the same year he was Middle Atlantic AAU, 12 and under diving champion
and a Tri-County swimming and diving champion. In his high school
years at Haddonfield Memorial High School, he was wrestling champion
in his weight class. When Ron graduated from high school in 1965, he
was accepted at the University of Delaware, but was also granted an
appointment to the US Air Force Academy, which he accepted.
His first assignment after graduating from the Academy in 1969, was
Navigator School, then training to be the “guy in back” in the F-4
Fighter Bomber, then an unexpected (and unwanted) assignment to South
Korea. Ron did everything he could think of to get a Vietnam
assignment, and the orders to go to Vietnam came while he was home
just prior to leaving for Korea. His unit was the 390th Tactical
Fighter Squadron, Danang Air Base, South Vietnam. With his heavy
clothes on their way to Korea and his lighter clothes shipped home to
Haddonfield, NJ, he left for Danang, South Vietnam, arriving there
February 6, 1971.
Ron was home again in July 1971. He was on R & R, but had come home to
be fitted with contact lenses so he could become a pilot. When Ron
came stateside in July, one of his concerns was what his father might
want for Christmas.
Shortly after his return to Danang, Ron began flying Forward Air
Controller reconnaissance missions. He was attached to the 390th
Tactical Fighter Squadron and had attained the rank of Captain (CAPT).
On September 30, 1971, he flew on an operational mission as the “guy
in back” for Captain Michael L. Donovan’s F-4E. The pair were on their
last leg of their mission. They had met up twice with the KC-135 (for
fuel). The aircraft failed to return to Danang, and after an extensive
search the two men were declared, “missing in action” at the time of
estimated fuel exhaustion. Ron was on his 150th mission in 222 days.
They were short of navigators and he took every opportunity to fly
even with squadrons other than his own.
Captain Bond’s status remained “missing in action” until February 6,
1979, when his status was administratively changed to “killed in
action”. Since his remains have yet to be recovered and returned, he
is listed by the Department of Defense as unaccounted for in Southeast
Asia.
Bond was awarded the Air Medal with eight oak leaf clusters (which
means it was awarded nine times). He was also awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters (that means it
was awarded three times).
Sources: POW Network and NJVVMF.
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