U.S. Navy pilot, MIA Identified

[Shortdawg]

NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense

No. 270-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mar 18, 2005
Media Contact: (703)697-5131
Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

Missing in Action Serviceman Identified


The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced
today that the remains of a U.S. Navy pilot, missing in action from the Vietnam
War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full
military honors.



Navy Commander Thomas E. Dunlop of Neptune Beach, Fla., will be buried
in Arlington National Cemetery on March 21.



On April 6, 1972, Dunlop took off in his A-7E *Corsair II* from the USS
Coral Sea on a bombing mission of enemy targets in Quang Binh Province, North
Vietnam. While over the target area, his aircraft was struck by an enemy
surface-to-air missile and as his wingman watched, Dunlop's aircraft exploded in a
fireball and crashed. No emergency beeper signals were received from the area of
his crash.



In April 1993, joint U.S. and Vietnamese teams interviewed five
residents of Quang Binh Province about the crash, but the information did not
further the investigation. In 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1998, U.S. and Vietnamese
investigators interviewed at least 13 other people in the province without
results. Meanwhile, U.S. survey teams visited potential crash sites in 1995, 1998
and twice in 2002. Again, no useful information was obtained.



Then in 2003 and again in 2004, specialists from the Joint POW/MIA
Accounting Command (JPAC) excavated a crash site where they found aircraft debris,
personal effects and human remains later identified by JPAC scientists as those of
Dunlop.



Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts, 1,836 are
from the Vietnam War with 1,399 of those within the country of Vietnam. Another
747 Americans have been accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War.


For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to
account for missing Americans from all conflicts, visit the DPMO Web site at
www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1169.