LUNDY, ALBRO LYNN, JR
Name: Albro Lynn Lundy Jr
Rank/Branch: 04/US Air Force
Unit: 1st SPOPSSQ 56th Special Ops Wing (formerly Air Commandos)
Nakohon Phanom RTAFB Thailand
Date of Birth: 17 November 32
Home of Record: Sherman Oaks, CA
Date of Loss: 24 December 1970
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 193726 N1034227E
Status (in 1973): Killed in Action/Body not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A1E # 139598/ Call Sign - Sandy 03
Refno: 1685
Other Personnel in Incident: none
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project and the P.O.W. NETWORK
November 1991 with the assistance of 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: In March of 1970, at the age of 37 Major Albro Lundy Junior
left home, his wife, Joanna, 37, and his 6 children to continue his
military career in Vietnam. Prior to his assignment in Southeast Asia,
he had taught German Luftwaffe pilots how to fly America's best planes.
Upon his return from his tour of Duty in Vietnam he was to be assigned
as the military attache to an Eastern European embassy. (He was lost
twelve days before his rotation home.) Major Lundy had also served at
Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) where he had designed
weapons systems and operations after completing his masters degree in
Human Factor's. During his first six month's of duty in Southeast Asia,
Major Lundy was awarded the Silver Star, two distinguished Flying
Crosses, the Air Force Medal and six Air Force Commendation Medals,
(Fourth through Ninth Oak Leaf Cluster.)
On December 24 1970, Major Albro Lundy, Junior volunteered for a
medical evacuation escort Mission in Laos in the Northeast corner of
the extremely heavily defended Ban Ban Valley, one of the most
important supply/storage areas supporting heavy enemy truck traffic. It
was accordingly defended by AAA up to and including 37MM. In addition
it is estimated there were hundreds of enemy troops in the area and the
danger of small arms and automatic weapons fire was definitely present.
The purpose of the med evac mission was to remove friendly troops who
had been wounded in the action in the immediate area. Although two
other A1E flights had refused to work in this area on December 24,
Major Lundy volunteered his flight to fly CAP for the Air America
helicopters making the pickup of the casualties. Three Air America
Helicopters, two Raven forward air controllers, an Air America C-7A,
and another A1E were flying on the mission.
During the flight, Major Lundy reported there were mechanical problems
with his aircraft. He radioed "I've got a rough engine... it's
backfiring." He radioed to the other members of the flight "I've got
to get out now." Immediately thereafter, the other members of the
flight saw the seat rocket fire followed by a normal chute deployment.
One pilot followed the descending chute, noticing that there was at
least part of a harness, and that the leg straps were dangling, but
there was no one in the chute although an Air America crew member
reported that Major Lundy was in the chute when it first opened. The
chute was watched until it impacted the ground in the area of
approximately 4.5 kilometers east of Ban Hai, Xiangkhoang Province,
Laos. The air crews heard no radio calls or beacon signals, and the
aircraft impacted and burned just seconds after the seat rocket fired.
Aircraft circled the impact area for 30 minutes following the crash,
and found no sign of a survivor. Ground teams attempted to enter the
crash site area later that day, but were driven away by hostile fire.
Casualities were taken.
According to the Air Force, Major Lundy was "probably out of the
aircraft at the time", and resolution of this incident was "probable"
because the incident occurred within five kilometers of a settlement
and the terrain allowed reasonable access and enemy personnel were
known to be close.
Major Lundy was declared category 1 MIA originally, and then two days
later Major Lundy was declared "dead- body not recovered" on December
26, 1970. The Lundy family was told, in both the telegram and official
condolence letter, that Major Lundy did not leave the aircraft and
that he "died instantly as a result of the aircraft crash."
Following the declaration of death, Joanna Lundy pursued a law degree,
in night school and raised 6 children. She never re-married. One son,
Albro Lundy III, 32, is also a lawyer. He was ten when his father left
for Vietnam.
In July of 1991, a photo surfaced showing three men believed to be
American Prisoners of War in captivity. The Lundy family positively
identified one of the men in the photo as Albro Lundy Junior. The other
two men, Navy Lt. Larry Stevens and Air Force Col. John Leighton
Robertson, were also identified by their family members. The photo,
accompanied by three sets of fingerprints and palm prints said to be
those of the three men was inscribed with a date (May 25 1990), and a
cryptic set of initials. Families found it incredible that no
fingerprint records could be found to check against those sent back
with the photo. In Major Lundy's case, this required the loss or
destruction of multiple sets of fingerprints known to once have been on
file with the Air Force, the FBI, the State Department, and his college
ROTC.
Further investigation by the Lundy family shows that over the years at
least 20 live sighting reports (the family has only seen 2 of these
reports) had been received on Albro Lundy Jr., and little if any
investigation was done on any of them. Fingerprints were not verified,
and the family was not told of the existence of such evidence. The
Pentagon has yet to prove the photo a "fake" even though all interviews
with the press imply that it is. Photo analysis has confirmed the
identity of the man in the photo, and shows an unmistakable correlation
of Major Lundy's features in his young photos to his aged image in the
1990 photo.
Albro Lundy III has made four trips from California to the Pentagon to
see his father's file and has been denied access each time. On July 15,
1991, the photo was given to the Vietnamese Government along with the
classified information that Albro III was denied access to.
Meanwhile the Lundy family waits for Freedom of Information Act requests to
be processed requesting all copies of the government photo analysis, and
for the FBI analysis on the photo to be completed almost two years after the
United States Government had possession of the photo. They have asked the
newly formed Senate Select Committee to help them obtain all the information
on Albro Lundy Junior that they have been denied access to.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LUNDY FAMILY RESPONDS TO REMAINS SENT FROM LAOS
October 30, 1997
CONTACT: ALBRO LUNDY III
W (310)376-9893
H (310)378-4494
Albro Lynn Lundy, III, son of Major Albro Lynn Lundy Jr,,
USAF POW/MIA shot down over Laos, confirms that the Laotian
government has returned remains labeled as his father to the
U.S. Ambassador in Laos. On Wednesday, October 29, 1997,
the Air Force also told Lundy that the dog tag, military ID
card and "blood chit" are being returned with the box of
purported remains. The Lundy family stresses that those
remains have been LABELED as that of his father, but none of
the articles or the remains have been verified.
Lundy said, 'We are truly grateful for the cooperation of
the Lao government and people for trying to resolve my
fathers case because we have been seeking the truth of what
actually happened to him for so long. Unfortunately, we
must be circumspect and verify evrything that is sent to us
before we can confirm that this is my father. Several other
MIA/POW families have been sent remains that turned out to
be nothing more then rocks and animal bones. Lundy added
that them are a number of important questions that either
government has yet to answer.
How did the Lao government obtain the ID Information
and remains?
What is the chain of custody with these items?
How were the items obtained from Major Albro Lundy, and
what were the exact circumstances of his death?
Lundy said he hopes this leads to finding the truth not only
on his father's case but the many other POW/MIA cases that
are unresolved as well.
[ladn0104.98 02/08/98]
Los Angeles Daily News
Sunday, January 4, 1998
BONES FAIL TO END '70 MYSTERY; VALLEY FAMILY DOUBTS REMAINS FROM
LAOS ARE MISSING FATHER'S
Deborah Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer
The bones lying in a military lab in Hawaii were supposed to provide
answers about a San Fernando Valley football star and airman shot down
over Laos in 1970. But now brothers William and Albro Lundy III suspect
that the remains identified as their father's might not be his at all.
William Lundy traveled last week to Hawaii to view the bones and
compare the government's evidence with information he gathered during a
four-year fact- finding expedition to Laos.
"I wanted to see the remains because I had serious doubts that they
were my dad's," William Lundy said.
Albro Lundy Jr., a decorated fighter pilot from Sherman Oaks,
disappeared after his plane was shot down over Laos in 1970. At that
time the government pronounced him dead, but evidence surfaced 20 years
later suggesting he survived. In October, the Laotian government
returned identification and bones it proclaimed to be his.
Using forensic evidence and DNA tests, the Army Central Identification
Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, is attempting to match those bones to
Lundy. But Lundy's sons remain skeptical, even holding out hope that
their father may still be alive.
During his tenure in Laos from 1992 to 1996, William Lundy spoke with
villagers who saw his father's plane shot down. They affirmed that he
dropped by parachute and survived.
A village official offered to sell him his father's ID card and dog
tags, but no mention was ever made of bones.
"When I was over there for four years, I actually met with people in
the village, and I talked with the brother of the man who was credited
with the shoot-down. At no time did they talk about remains," William
Lundy said.
"If this Laotian official - they view me as one big wallet - if he had
my father's remains, don't you think he would have offered it?" asked
his brother, Albro Lundy III, a Palos Verdes attorney. "(Bones) are
obviously a much higher-priced item, in a macabre sense, than an ID card
and dog tag."
Lt. Col. Roger King, a U.S. military public-affairs officer, said a
Laotian witness retrieved both the bones and the identification in 1992.
The Laotian government returned them last fall, King said.
But it remains unclear what happened to his father after he was shot
down, William Lundy said.
He said reports on the incident indicate his father may have slipped
out of the parachute while falling, then landed alive but injured. But
the breaks in the leg bones held in Hawaii tell a different story,
suggesting they may belong to another American, Lundy said.
"The breaks in the legs are inconsistent with the government briefing
on the accident," he said after talking with the pathologist.
The bones he viewed appeared to have been fractured from the front,
while a fall from a parachute would have shattered them from the feet
upward, he said.
Retired Lt. Col. Johnie Webb, who is overseeing the case, said the
military has not reached any conclusions about the fractured bones.
"This could have been a result of him falling out of the parachute and
hitting the ground at pretty rapid speed," Webb said. "We don't know
exactly what did happen, so we're not ruling out anything at this
point."
Only DNA tests will tell for certain whether the bones are his.
Scientists must first extract DNA samples from the bones, then match
them with a sample of DNA known to have come from Albro Lundy Jr. or
with a blood sample from a maternal relative. Webb said he expects some
answers in early February.
King said the military's Joint Task Force, which investigates the
disappearances of servicemen, will continue seeking evidence in Laos on
Lundy and other missing Americans. He said 450 American servicemen are
still unaccounted for in Laos - among 2,099 servicemen missing
throughout Southeast Asia.
"The bottom line is we continue to follow up on any credible lead we
can get, and the investigation work isn't over until we have an
identification," King said.
In the meantime, William Lundy suspects his father may still be alive.
He said he plans to return to Laos to search for living prisoners of
war.
"There are live POWs left there," he said. "And I'm going to try and
help resolve this issue. And if my father walks out I'm blessed, and if
another man walks out, I'm still blessed."
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