Gillen, Thomas Eldon
Air Force Colonel

Thomas Eldon Gillen, age 36, from Kansas, Kingman county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Wednesday, February 18, 1970
Death details: On February 18, 1970, an F-4D Phantom II (tail number 66-7526) with a crew of two took part in a four-plane strike mission against targets in eastern Laos. As the Phantom made its pass over the target, it was hit by enemy ground fire. Witnesses in other aircraft reported seeing one ejection from the stricken plane before it crashed in the vicinity of (GC) VG 008 547. Search teams rescued the Phantom’s navigator, the crew member who successfully ejected. Attempts to locate the other crew member were unsuccessful. Major Thomas Eldon Gillen, who joined the U.S. Air Force from Kansas, served in the 435th Tactical Fighter Squadron and was the aircraft commander aboard this Phantom when it went down. He did not bail out of the aircraft and was lost in the incident. Attempts to locate or recover his remains were unsuccessful. While carried in the status of missing in action (MIA), the U.S. Air Force promoted Major Gillen to the rank of Colonel (Col). Today, Colonel Gillen is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, El Paso Herald (1970), Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency