William Lee Nellans
Major
12TH TAC RECON SQDN, 460TH TAC RECON WING, 7TH AF
United States Air Force
Warsaw, Indiana
December 29, 1936 to November 02, 1973
(Incident Date September 17, 1967)
WILLIAM L NELLANS is on the Wall at Panel 26E, Line 85

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William L Nellans
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26 Apr 2005

Memories of my brother are vivid yet today. He was the big brother to three younger sisters. His two children live in the Delaware area and he has five grandchildren. His mother and sisters live in the Warsaw, Indiana area.

His son, Major Troy Nellans, U.S. Army, is about to be deployed to Iraq. Our thoughts and prayers go with him.

From his sister,
Madonna Sue Nellans Creighton
953 N. Old Orchard Drive, Warsaw, In 46582
sscreighton@earthlink.net


 
06 Jun 2006

Bill and I were former USAF Navigators who attended Pilot Training Class 65G at Reese AFB. Later we met a few times in Vietnam. He was a good friend and is missed.

From a friend and fellow USAF pilot,
Tom Barrettt
E-mail address is not available.


 

A Note from The Virtual Wall

The 12th and 16th Tactical Recon Squadrons were stationed at Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon. On the night of 16/17 Sep 1967 two men from the 12th TRS departed on a recon mission over the southernmost part of North Vietnam flying RF-4C tail number 64-1037, an aircraft assigned to their sister squadron the 16th TRS.

The aircraft did reach its target area but then disappeared entirely, believed to have been shot down 5 miles or so north of the Demilitarized Zone. After search-and-rescue efforts failed, the two crewmen were classed as missing in action, and remained in that status until the Secretary of the Air Force approved Presumptive Findings of Death for them. The two men were

  • Major William L. Nellans, Warsaw, IN (PFoD 11/02/1973)
  • Captain Peter A. Grubb, Southampton, NY (PFoD 06/24/1977)
Their remains have not been repatriated.

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