Albro L. Lundy Jr. 

Rank/Branch:  04/US Air Force
Unit:  56th Special Ops. Squadron (formerly Air Commandos)
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

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 attaché 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. Casualties 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.