Vietnam MIA Pilot Thomas Duffy Served 13 Years in Air Force Then as a Marine

Side Streets: MIA widow grateful to finally know how pilot husband died in Vietnam
The Gazette
Staff
December 21, 2014

"Duff had served 13 years in the Air Force, then transferred to the Marines for six more years until his death so he could fly the F-4. He served in Vietnam in 1967-68 before going back in 1971 for another tour of combat duty. If that doesn't qualify Duff as a hero, nothing does.

In fact, I think everyone in this story is a hero."

For 42 years, Ann Duffy wondered exactly what happened on April 27, 1972.

That was the day her husband, Thomas Duffy, went missing in action in Vietnam after the F-4 Phantom he was piloting went down over Da Nang bay.

About all Ann knew was that the radar/weapons officer in the backseat had ejected and survived.

But she never knew why "Duff," as she calls her husband, didn't make it out of the fighter jet. She didn't even know the circumstances of the incident. She assumed they were in combat and believed he had collided with a North Vietnamese plane.

"He went down over water, but I don't know what happened," Ann told me recently. "I didn't insist on his backseater getting in touch with us. They never even told me his name. I wish I had asked."

The voice of the 80-year-old widow trailed off.

"I always wanted to ask what happened," she said. "How did he get out alive and not Duff?"
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