BLOODWORTH, DONALD BRUCE
REMAINS RETURNED/ID'D 02/04/98
Name: Donald Bruce Bloodworth
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit: 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Ubon AF TH
Date of Birth: 28 December 1944
Home City of Record: San Diego CA
Date of Loss: 24 July 1970
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 193031N 1031928E (UG242578)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 1
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4D
Other Personnel In Incident: James W. "Bill" Reed (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 31 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: Capt. James W. "Bill" Reed was a pilot assigned to the 555th
Tactical Fighter Squadron at Ubon Airfield, Thailand. On July 24, 1970, he
and his navigator, 1Lt. Donald B. Bloodworth were assigned an operational
mission over Laos in their F4D Phantom fighter/bomber.
Their mission that day took them over the Plaine des Jarres (Plain of Jars)
region of northern Laos in Xiangkhoang Province. As the aircraft was making
a strafing pass over a communist truck convoy, it took enemy fire. The crew
of a C123 observed the Phantom crash after it had made its pass over the
target, but no one saw parachutes before seeing a huge explosion, and no
recognizable aircraft parts were found. No emergency radio beeper signals
were heard. Nevertheless, there remained the possibility that the men safely
ejected.
Bloodworth was listed Missing In Action, Category 1, which means that the
U.S. is certain the enemy knows what happened to him. As backseater, he
would have been first to eject from the crippled plane, so he would not
necessarily land close to his pilot. Bill Reed is Missing In Action,
Category 2, meaning there is strong reason to suspect the enemy knows his
fate.
Reed and Bloodworth are among nearly 600 Americans who disappeared in Laos
during the Vietnam war. As Laos did not take part in the agreements that
ended American involvement in Indochina, no prisoner release was ever
negotiated with Laos. Although the Pathet Lao stated on several occasions
that they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, not one man held in
Laos has ever been released, and no agreement has been reached to free them.
Over the years since the war ended, thousands of reports have been received
which have convinced many that hundreds of Americans are still alive in
Southeast Asia, held against their will. Bill Reed and Donald Bloodworth
could be among them. If so, what must they be thinking of us?
Donald B. Bloodworth was promoted to the rank of Captain and James W. Reed
was promoted to the rank of Major during the period they were maintained
missing.
Defense POW/MIA Weekly Update
February 4, 1998
REMAINS OF U.S. SERVICEMEN FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA IDENTIFIED
The remains of two American servicemen previously unaccounted-for from
Southeast Asia have been identified and will be returned to their families
for burial in the United States.
They are identified as Col. Paul G. Underwood, of Goldsboro, N.C.; and Capt.
Donald B. Bloodworth, of San Diego, Cal., both U.S. Air Force.
On March 16, 1966, Col. Underwood was leading a strike mission over Lai Chau
Province, Vietnam. As he released his payload, he reported that his F-105
Thunderchief was on fire. Col. Underwood’s wingman reported observing the
F-105 crash but he saw no parachute.
In 1994 and 1995, joint U.S-Vietnamese search teams interviewed local
villagers and investigated a suspected crash site believed to be that of
Col. Underwood. In 1996, the crash site was excavated and human remains,
pilot- related artifacts, and personal effects, including Col. Underwood’s
military identification tags were recovered. The remains were repatriated to
the U.S. Army’s Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii and identified
as those belonging to Col. Underwood.
On July 24, 1970, Capt. Bloodworth and his pilot were flying an F-4D
aircraft as escort on an armed, night reconnaissance mission over Laos. The
pilot radioed that he had lost sight of the markers indicating the target
location. That was the last contact received from the crew.
Joint U.S.-Lao teams investigated this incident twice in 1991 and 1993. In
1991, the teams surveyed the site, and in 1993, excavated a suspected crash
site recovering aircraft wreckage and human remains. These remains were
repatriated and subsequently identified as Capt. Bloodworth’s. His crewmate
is still unaccounted- for.
With the identification of these two servicemen, 2,097 Americans remain
unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War.
The San Diego Union Tribune
North Country
February 3, 1998
By Dwight Daniels, Staff writer
Two days before Air Force Capt. Donald Bloodworth climbed into an F-4D
fighter-bomber in July 1970 for a mission over Laos, he'd gotten good news
from home: his wife, Tami, had given birth to their only child, a son.
"One of his Air Force buddies described to me just how proud he was about
it," his mother, Jean Bloodworth said by telephone from her home in
Hillcrest. "He was sky high . . he couldn't stop talking about his new son,
Donald Bloodworth, 29, who'd been in Southeast Asia for only seven months,
didn't know he would never hold the infant he fathered. Or that child, now a
chiropractor in Michigan, would never get to meet his dad. The captain did
not come back from the night reconnaissance mission over the jungle.
The Pentagon announced over the weekend that his remains, and those of an
Air Force colonel from North Carolina, had been identified and will be
returned to their families.
"He scheduled that particular flight for himself, knowing it would be
difficult, because he would never ask another person to do something he
wasn't willing to do," said Donald Bloodworth's sister-in-law, Connie
Bloodworth.
"That's just the kind of person be was," she said yesterday from her home in
Encinitas.
As Donald Bloodworth, a navigator, and his pilot got deeper into their
mission, they radioed that they were off course. Moments later, contact was
lost. The Air Force soon declared both men missing in action.
Letters the navigator had penned in the days before his last flight
continued to reach home.
"Nearly all of us got cards or letters posthumously," said Connie
Bloodworth, who recalled her brother-in-law played clarinet and saxophone at
Clairemont High School and also competed on the track team.
He played soccer at UC Berkeley and graduated in 1966 with a degree in
accounting. He went to work for a chemical firm before joining the Air
Force.
"He wanted to show that not everyone from Berkeley was out there
protesting," said Connie Bloodworth, whose husband, John Bloodworth Jr., is
a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel on a tour in Okinawa.
"He had a sense of obligation to his country" she said, adding that
Bloodworths have served in most U.S. conflicts including the Revolutionary
War.
Donald Bloodworth likely could have avoided fighting in Southeast Asia
altogether. He'd been offered a stateside job as a navigator instructor
after earning honors as he won his own wings.
"He didn't want to do that," Connie Bloodworth said. He said, 'I was
trained, I ought to go (over-seas).'
But reality was less inviting. From Thailand, he expressed his feelings in
letters to his school-teacher wife, Tami, and her students that he'd
learned war was a terrible thing, Connie Bloodworth said.
Then news arrived that he was missing in action. It was not until four years
after the crash that Donald Bloodworth's MIA designation was changed to
killed in action.
Donald Bloodworth's father, retired Marine Corps Master Sgt. John Bloodworth
Sr., was so devastated by his son's death that he suffered a series of heart
attacks.
"My husband just didn't want to believe it was true," Jean Bloodworth said.
"He grieved every day until he died."
In 1993, the family learned that U.S. and Laotian searchers had excavated a
crash site and human remains - thought to be Donald Bloodworth's - were
found. His pilot is still unaccounted for.
Eventually, the military took a blood sample from Jean Bloodworth so her
DNA could be matched against that from a leg bone thought to be her son's.
Last month, before the public announcement, the family was notified that the
remains had been confirmed to be those of Donald Bloodworth by the Army's
Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii.
"I'm just glad we live in a country that would go through all it has to get
to this poi," Connie Bloodworth said. "There's great relief and satisfaction
knowing that at least some part of (Donald) is finally coming home."
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