A Daughter's Loving Tribute to her Dad
This Hero was my first adopted POW / MIA.
Click Here
to go to that tribute page.
Rank/Branch: E6/US Air Force
Unit: 37th ARRSQ / Pararescue, Da Nang
Date of Birth: 05 July 1943
Home City of Record: Ft. Walton Beach FL
Date of Loss: 25 November 1971
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 103800N 1064800E (XS953730)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 3
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: HH53C
Refno: 1780
Other Personnel In Incident: none missing
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April
1991 from one or more of the following: raw data
from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources,
interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: Jim Thomas joined the Air Force when he
was 18 and was assigned duty as an aircraft
mechanic. While he was stationed in Hawaii, he
was able to train for pararescue, and subsequently
assigned to a pararescue Squadron at Da Nang,
Vietnam.
On November 25, 1971, while on a TDY assignment,
Jim was on a rescue mission which successfully
retrieved 13 soldiers whose helicopter had been
shot down. Jim's chopper took ground fire during
the rescue, and the crew stopped at a forward base
camp to make sure the chopper was safe to fly. The
soldiers got off at that time.
On the flight back to its home base at Bien Hoa,
the chopper took more fire and the pilot was hit.
It began a slow descent and impacted in a river,
breaking in two. Three crew members were found
dead. The two crew members standing next to Jim
both got out and were recovered by friendly forces.
A local fisherman who saw the crash said a third
man, wearing a white t-shirt, also escaped. Jim
was the only one wearing a white t-shirt. One
side of the river was controlled by friendly
forces, and the other by enemy troops.
When American Prisoners of War were released in
1973, Jim Thomas was not among them. He remains
unaccounted for.
Since the war ended, over 10,000 reports have been
received concerning Americans still in captivity
in Southeast Asia, but the U.S. has been unable
to secure freedom for any of those who remain.
On November 25, 1998, Jim's wife, Julie, passed
away. Her friends said "she died of a broken
heart." Julie never knew the fate of her husband,
and left three daughters, Kimmie, Lisa and
Symphony to carry on the fight.
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