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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Airman Missing From Vietnam War Accounted For (Dugan)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced todaythat the remains of two servicemen, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and willbe returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

The two servicemen are U.S. Air Force Cols. Francis J. McGouldrick Jr., of New Haven,Conn., and Thomas W. Dugan, of Reading, Pa. McGouldrick will be buried Dec. 13 at ArlingtonNational Cemetery. Group remains representing McGouldrick and Dugan will be buried Aug. 21in Reiffton, Pa. On Dec. 13, 1968, McGouldrick and Dugan were on a night strike mission whentheir B-57E Canberra aircraft collided with another aircraft over Savannakhet Province, Laos.McGouldrick and Dugan were never seen again and were listed as missing in action.

After the war in July 1978, a military review board amended their official statusfrom missing in action to be 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, to include mitochondrial DNA – whichmatched McGouldrick’s great nephew and niece. The accounting for Dugan was based uponcircumstantial evidence as the remains not identified could not be associated with either, or both,Dugan and McGouldrick.

Today there are 1,641American 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.

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