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Name: Joseph Patrick Dunn
Rank/Branch: O2/US Navy
Unit: Attack Squadron 25, USS CORAL SEA
Date of Birth: 17 September 1942 (Boston MA)
Home City of Record: Hull MA
Date of Loss: 14 February 1968
Country of Loss: China
Loss Coordinates: 185500N 1103800E (DL614917)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 3
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: A1H
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 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:
SYNOPSIS: LTJG Joseph P. Dunn joined the Navy in 1964. He received orders
for Vietnam in July 1967, where he was assigned to Attack Squadron 25
onboard the USS CORAL SEA. On February 14, 1968, Dunn launched in his A1H
Skyraider attack aircraft from Cubi Point Naval Air Station, Republic of the
Philippines, to relieve another aircraft from his squadron. The flight was a
ferry flight, returning a repaired A1 aircraft to the USS CORAL SEA,
accompanied by a second unarmed radar plane.
During the flight to the aircraft carrier on station in the Gulf of Tonkin,
both Dunn and his wingman drifted north of their proposed flight route and
wound up off the east coast of Hainan Island, China. The Chinese, having
tracked the aircraft on radar, sent MiG 17 aircraft to turn the intruders
away. Fire from one of them struck Dunn's aircraft.
The pilot of the second plane, along with three other crewmen, saw Dunn
descend with a fully opened parachute and heard the manual UHF emergency
beeper sound for two to three minutes, but then they were forced evade the
attacking MiG aircraft and flew toward the security of South Vietnam. The
wingman immediately reported the shootdown and U.S. aircraft responded
within minutes of the call. Unfortunately, due to the wingman's perception
that he was off the coast of North Vietnam and not China, the U.S. aircraft
searched the wrong area for hours. Upon his landing in South Vietnam, the
mistake was discovered and other aircraft were correctly deployed, but
without success.
Eight hours after the shootdown, an electronic surveillance plane picked up
a beeper signal for 20 minutes from the vicinity of Hainan Island. It is
believed that Dunn would take approximately 8 hours to reach the island in
his emergency life raft. There were a number of junks in the region which
might have picked him up. Had he drowned, his body would have reached the
island and probably have been seen by villagers.
The Chinese reported the shootdown in their radio broadcasts. Numerous
newspapers related the incident, and U.S. State Department efforts were
initiated to try to get more information. Despite the evidence that Dunn
could have been captured, the Chinese will say nothing about his fate.
American envoys to China have raised the question of Dunn's fate to no
avail.
Dunn's wife and son have been very active since he disappeared in the effort
to secure information on the men still missing in Indochina. They know that
Joe Dunn would want them to press for answers. Joe himself was very
concerned about friends who had been shot down, and for the crew of the
ill-fated Pueblo illegally seized by North Korea in 1968. They continually
work to remind the American public and the government of the United States
that the fate of those nearly 2500 Americans remains unresolved and is of
utmost importance.
Joseph P. Dunn was promoted to the rank of Commander during the period he
was maintained missing.
In 1997, Monika Jensen-Stevensen wrote "SPITE HOUSE" and in it notes she
spoke to Maureen Dunn. The author writes "Ms. Dunn also obtained documents
through the Freedom of Information Act that VERIFY that the decision to
ABANDON her husband, and other pilots who were shot down near Hainan Island,
were made at the highest levels....high-level group had made the decison to
abort her husband's rescue in the same way.....[as the] abandoning of the
pilot in October of the same year. She asked McNamara for an apology....He
told her, "I'm not just sorry, I'm horrified..."
[see page 199-200 of Spite House]
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