WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Larry R. Kilpatrick, 28, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, killed during Vietnam was accounted for May 18, 2018.
In June 1972, Kilpatrick was a member of Attack Squadron One Hundred Five (VA-105), on board the USS Saratoga (CVA-60), flying an A-7A “Corsair II” aircraft in a flight of two on a night armed reconnaissance mission over northern Vietnam. Kilpatrick’s wingman lost radio contact with him outside of Ha Tinh City, after he announced he had sighted a target and was commencing an attack. After daybreak, search and rescue aircraft observed remnants of a parachute near Kilpatrick’s last known location, but could not identify it as Kilpatrick’s. The search and rescue team was unable to locate any aircraft wreckage.
On June 19, 1972, a Radio Hanoi broadcast claimed a shoot-down of four aircraft in the previous two days. According to the report, on June 18, an A-7 was shot down. Records indicated that Kilpatrick’s A-7A was the only aircraft of that kind lost during that period.
In 1996, a joint team excavated the crash site, recovering aircraft wreckage consistent with an A-7 aircraft, but no remains were located. In the following years, excavation of the crash site was expanded, with teams recovering possible osseous remains, as well as life support items. The remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory for processing and identification.
To identify Kilpatrick’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence recovered from the crash site.
Kilpatrick’s name is recorded on the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with others who are unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Kilpatrick will be buried in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on Nov. 15, 2024.
For family and funeral information, contact the Navy Casualty Office at (800) 443-9298.
DPAA is grateful to the government of Vietnam for their partnership in this mission.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
Kilpatrick’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000BTcbEAG.