CLARK, THOMAS EDWARD

Name: Thomas Edward Clark
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 15 April 1939
Home City of Record: Emporium PA
Date of Loss: 08 February 1969
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 171300N 1060500E
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F100D
Refno: 1374
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: Tom Clark graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1963, after
having already spent two years at Penn State University. He was sometimes
referred to as an "old man" at the Academy. He was interested in politics
and flying and looked forward to a military career.

Nearly 6 years after his graduation, Tom Clark was flying a mission in Laos
over the Ho Chi Minh Trail just northwest of the DMZ when his aircraft was
shot down. Circumstances surrounding his crash indicate that the enemy
probably knows his fate, but in 1973, Tom was not released with other POWs.

Tom Clark is one of nearly 600 Americans who were lost in Laos and did not
return. The Pathet Lao stated on several occasions that they held "tens of
tens" of American prisoners, but that those who had been captured in Laos
would also be released from Laos. The Lao wanted acknowledgement that the
U.S. and Vietnamese had been waging war in their country.

Laos was not included in the peace agreements ending American involvement in
Southeast Asia, and not one American held in Laos was released - or
negotiated for. By 1989, the U.S. had so thoroughly forgotten the men they
abandoned that they began building medical clinics for the communist Lao
government. At the same time, reports and evidence mount that Americans are
still held alive as captives in Vietnam and Laos.

Tom Clark served his country proudly. He does not deserve abandonment.

Thomas E. Clark was promoted to the rank of Major during the period he was
maintained Missing in Action.

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