DENNIS EDWARD WILKINSON
Remains returned 26 August 1978
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Date of Birth: 23 July 1944
Home City of Record: W. Palm Beach FL
Date of Loss: 10 May 1972
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 214100N 1050700E (WJ120975)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F4E
Other Personnel in Incident: Jeffrey L. Harris,
remains returned 05/97 [see Harris bio]
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15
October 1990 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.
REMARKS: REMS RET 780826 MONTGOM HANOI
SYNOPSIS: In the spring of 1972, the U.S.
formulated the LINEBACKER offensive. Its objective
was to keep the weapons of war out of North
Vietnam. At this time, the North Vietnamese had one
of the best air defense systems in the world, with
excellent radar integration of SA-2 SAMs, MiGs, and
antiaircraft artillery. The NVN defense system
could counter our forces from ground level up to
nineteen miles in the air. MiG fighters were on
ready alert, and after takeoff, were vectored by
ground-control radar. Soviet advisors devised
attack strategies, manned a number of the SAM sites,
and also trained North Vietnamese crews. On the
first strike day, the entire force encountered
heavy concentrations of anti-aircraft fire and
16 MiGs were seen. Three of the MiGs were downed,
but the Air Force lost an air crew. An F4E flown
by Capt. Jeffrey L. Harris and Weapons Systems
Officer Capt. Dennis E. Wilkinson exploded and
crashed. The Air Force believed there was reason
to believe the two escaped the crippled plane,
and declared them both Missing in Action. In 1973,
591 Americans were released from prisons in Hanoi.
Harris and Wilkinson were not among them. Military
officials were dismayed that hundreds of known or
suspected prisoners were not released. In 1978,
Congressman "Sonny" Montgomery led a much-maligned
delegation to Hanoi to determine whether any
American POWs remained in Vietnam. The Vietnamese
told him there were none, and gave the delegation
a few sets of American remains. Mr. Montgomery
returned with the report that all Americans were
dead. One of the sets of remains given to
Montgomery was subsequently identified as Dennis
E. Wilkinson. If the Vietnamese could account for
him, it seems unlikely that they are unable to
account for Harris as well. LINEBACKER and
LINEBACKER II offensives were the most effective
strikes against enemy defenses in the war. By the
end of these surgical strikes, according to pilots
who flew the missions, the North Vietnamese had
"nothing left to shoot at us as we flew over. It
was like flying over New York City."
Nearly 2500 Americans did not return from the war
in Vietnam. Thousands of reports have been
received indicating that some hundreds remain
alive in captivity. As in the case of Wilkinson,
Vietnam and her communist allies can account for
most of them.
In the total view of the issue of the missing,
however, the return of remains signals no progress.
In the early 1980's the very credible Congressional
testimony of a Vietnamese mortician indicated
that the Vietnamese are in possession of over 400
sets of remains. In 15 years, they have returned
barely half of them. More importantly, the same
credible witness, whose testimony is believed
throughout Congress, stated that he had seen live
Americans held at the same location where the
remains were stored.
As long as even one American remains alive in
captivity in Southeast Asia, the only issue is
that one living man. We must bring them home
before there are only remains to negotiate for.
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