Airman Missing From Vietnam War Accounted For![]() U.S. Air Force Col. Francis J. McGouldrick Jr. of New Haven, Conn., will be
buried Dec. 13, at Arlington National Cemetery. On Dec. 13, 1968, McGouldrick
was on a night strike mission when his B-57E Canberra aircraft collided with
another aircraft over Savannakhet Province, Laos. McGouldrick was never seen
again and was listed as missing in action.
After the war in July 1978, a military review board amended his official
status from missing in action to presumed killed in action.
Between 1993 and 2004, joint U.S/Lao People's Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R.)
teams attempted to locate the crash site with no success. On April 8, 2007, a
joint team located a possible crash site near the village of Keng Keuk,
Laos.
From October 2011 to May 2012, joint U.S./L.P.D.R. teams excavated the site
three times and recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage consistence with a
B-57E aircraft.
In the identification of McGouldrick, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA
Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory
(AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as
mitochondrial DNA – which matched McGouldrick's great nephew and niece.
Today there are 1,644 American service members that are still unaccounted-for
from the Vietnam War.
For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1169. |
We do not have information on individuals beyond what is listed on this site.
For more information, visit www.dpaa.mil or call 703-699-1420.
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