KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Airman 1st Class Darryl Winters, combat cameraman from San Francisco, was killed in South Vietnam on July 19, 1966 while filming a strafing attack on a well-defended Viet Cong position a few miles west of Saigon, Vietnam. On the fateful day, Airman Winters was flying his 217th mission in the backseat of a North American F-100 Super Sabre preparing his camera to record the effects of the mission. Upon making a strafing pass over a target in Long An Province near the city of Tan An, Vietnam, his aircraft was hit by hostile ground fire and crashed just short of the target area. He was the first Aeronautical Audio Visual Service Airman to be killed in action in Vietnam and was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service. Winters Manor, 338th Training Squadron dormitory located at Keesler, was named in his honor.
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