McCormick, Michael Timothy, LT

On the night of 9/10 January 1973, the Strategic Air Command's B-52 heavy bombers continued their attacks in North Vietnam with a series of strikes in the vicinity of Vinh. Two A-6A Intruders from Attack Squadron 115 aboard USS Midway were tasked with a surface-to-air missile suppression attack on a SAM site about 30 miles northwest of Vinh. LT Michael T. McCormick, pilot, and LTJG Robert A. Clark, B/N, were assigned A-6A BuNo 155693. 

The two aircraft launched and proceeded "feet dry", intending to conduct separate but coordinated attacks on the target. The weather was overcast with cloud layers variously reported at 1,500 to 15,000 feet. As the A-6s and B-52s approached their targets, a barrage of SAM missiles were launched - a dozen or so at the B-52 cells and three at the A-6s. Although the missile rocket motors illuminated the clouds, it was impossible to judge their trajectory or target until the SAM actually broke free of the cloud cover, thereby reducing the aircrews' reaction time.

The second Intruder completed its attack and went "feet wet", taking up an orbit offshore while waiting for McCormick and Clark to rendezvous - but they never arrived. That aircrew then retraced the flight route at an altitude of 15,000, but failed to sight any fires other than those caused by the B-52 strikes and were unable to make radio contact with either McCormick or Clark. Subsequent search and rescue efforts failed to locate either the downed aircraft or its crew.

Both crewmen were carried as Missing in Action until the Secretary of the Navy approved Presumptive Findings of Death for them - McCormick on 25 July 1975 and Clark on 07 March 1978. Mike McCormick and Robert Clark were the last of seven VA-115 aircrewmen lost during the Vietnam War. 

In July 1991, U.S. researchers discovered in a Vietnamese military museum a data plate which correlated to the downed aircraft. Later, in another museum, they discovered photos of a crash site which also correlated to the missing aircraft. U.S. researchers examined Vietnamese wartime records which confirmed the downing of that aircraft in Nghe An Province in January 1973.

Between 1993 and 2002, U.S. researchers and joint U.S.-Vietnam teams conducted four field investigations and one excavation. During one of their field visits, a witness to the 1973 crash turned over remains he claimed to have recovered at the site. During the excavation in 2002, additional remains were recovered.

The remains were identified in 2003 by the Central Identification Laboratory through skeletal analysis and mitochondrial DNA.In May 2003, researchers in the Central Identification Laboratory used skeletal analysis and DNA to finally confirm the remains belonged to Clark and McCormick.

Their remains were buried in Arlington Cemetery.

Now Robert A. Clark and Michael T. McCormick have come home.