The Pentagon’s POW/Missing Personnel Office has identified an Air Force officer missing in action from the Vietnam War. Maj. John F. Conlon III of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and another crewmember took off from Qui Nhon Air Field in South Vietnam on March 4, 1966, in an O-1E Bird Dog light observation aircraft on a reconnaissance mission. The last contact with Bird Dog came 30 minutes after takeoff when the crew reported their position. A six-day search, initiated when the aircraft did not arrive at its destination, failed to find the aircraft or crew. Leads developed from May 1993 to August 2005, led investigators to a site that a joint JPAC-Vietnamese team excavated in February 2006. Conlon’s dental records confirmed his identity from remains found at the site.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.