Remains of American pilot who vanished during Vietnam War spy mission finally identified

An American pilot who was killed while flying a spy mission during the Vietnam War has been accounted for, Army officials said Tuesday. 

In June 1972, U.S. Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Larry R. Kilpatrick took off from the USS Saratoga, an aircraft carrier moored in waters off Vietnam’s northern coast, in an A-7A “Corsair II” small plane, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a news release. 

Kilpatrick, 28, was conducting what the DPAA called a “night armed reconnaissance mission.” 

Kilpatrick’s wingman reported losing radio contact with him outside of Ha Tinh City, the DPAA said. Kilpatrick had radioed the wingman to say he had sighted a target and was planning to attack, but did not have any further communication with the wingman. Search and rescue effort were deployed the next morning. They did not locate any airplane wreckage, but saw the remnants of a parachute near Kilpatrick’s last known location. 

Radio Hanoi, a propaganda radio station run by the North Vietnamese Army, said on June 19, 1972, that North Vietnamese forces had shot down four aircraft in the past two days. The report claimed one of the planes was an A-7 — the same type of craft Kilpatrick had been flying. According to the DPAA, Kilpatrick’s A-7A was the only aircraft that disappeared during that window. 

Kilpatrick’s name was recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. His name was also engraved on the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In 1996, nearly a quarter century later, a joint team excavated the crash site that had been originally spotted by search and rescue personnel. Searchers found aircraft wreckage consistent with an A-7 aircraft, the DPAA said. The site was further excavated over the years, and personnel found possible human remains and life support items.

Those remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory to be processed and identified. Scientists used dental analysis and circumstantial evidence recovered from the scene to confirm the identity. 

A rosette will be placed next to Kilpatrick’s name to indicate that he has been accounted for, the DPAA said, and he will be buried in Gwinnett County, Georgia on Nov. 15, 2024.