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Two American CAT Pilots Die at Dien Bien Phu

May 6, 1954

Earthquake’s Final Flight, by Jeffrey W. Bass, 2006. This painting portrays James “Earthquake McGoon
Earthquake’s Final Flight, by Jeffrey W. Bass, 2006. This painting portrays James “Earthquake McGoon
Earthquake’s Final Flight, by Jeffrey W. Bass, 2006. This painting portrays James “Earthquake McGoon” McGovern’s last mission for Civil Air Transport over Dien Bien Phu. (Jeffrey W. Bass)

Shortly before the final Viet Minh assault at the battle of Dien Bien Phu, two Civil Air Transport (CAT) pilots, James McGovern and co-pilot Wallace Buford, are killed when Viet Minh ground fire near Dien Bien Phu downs their transport plane. Over the course of the battle, 37 CAT pilots complete 682 airborne supply missions in support of the besieged French garrison.1

1Alfred T. Cox, Civil Air Transport, A Proprietary Airline, 1946–1955, Clandestine Services History (declassified and published, 1963), Vol. 3, Tab K, pp. 11–22 (pilot deaths noted p. 17); Spencer C. Tucker, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History, (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 166–68; George C. Herring, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975, (4th edition; New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002), 33–45. Regarding the number of pilots and the 682 missions number, see https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/earthquake-mcgoons-final-flight.html (link is external) and the heading for Dien Bien Phu. Frederik Logevall, Embers of War: The Fall of An Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam (New York: Random House, 2012), 528–529.