THE WALL OF FACES

On the remembrance of your 85th birthday, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

POW-MIA...Never Forget

HOOAH

Since the entry on this VVMF website for MIA Colonel Thomas Gardner Derrickson II, inaugural USAFA Class of 1959, USAF, on 8 January 2018, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) updated the link/URL on its website for him at the Honolulu Memorial (Court "A") in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (the "Punchbowl") on the island of Oahu in the state of Hawaii.

The updated link/URL is:
https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/derrickson%3Dthomas

Information about the loss of an F-4C Phantom jet aircraft from the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron piloted by Captain Thomas Gardner Derrickson II, inaugural USAFA Class of 1959, in Southeast Asia (SEA) (over North Vietnam) on 12 October 1967 is available at this link/URL on the Vietnam Air Losses website:

https://vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1397

While in MIA status, the U.S. Air Force promoted Capt. Derrickson from Major, then to Lt Col and finally to Colonel along with his Air Force Academy classmates.

The Department of Defense conducted ceremonies at the Pentagon and at Hickam AFB on Friday, 18 September 2020 in recognition of POW/MIA Recognition Day. Deputy Defense Secretary David L. Nordquist remembered the 1,586 MIAs from the Vietnam War as well as all those still unaccounted for from WWII, the Korean War, the Cold War and other conflicts. Director (Maj. Gen, USAFR, ret) Kelly McKeague of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) also recorded a separate video message to Gold Star MIA families. Additionally, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) produced a “virtual” event on 18 Sep. Since the 2019 Ceremony, DPAA has positively identified 1 Vietnam War MIA. Colonel Thomas Gardner Derrickson II, inaugural USAFA Class of 1959, is one of those 1,586 MIAs unaccounted for in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam War. He is the only man in his U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs class of 1959 who is still MIA. There are 40 additional Air Force Academy graduates unaccounted for in SEA.

This is the link to the DoD/DVIDS video for the Pentagon ceremony:
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/766486/defense-officials-recognize-prisoners-war-missing-service-members-ceremony

This is the link to the DoD/DVIDS video for the Hickam AFB ceremony:
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/766491/admiral-commemorates-prisoners-war-and-missing-service-members-ceremony

This is the link to the DPAA Director McKeague’s video statement:
https://vimeo.com/454474340

This is the link to the VVMF virtual remembrance: https://www.vvmf.org/POWMIA-2020/

* N.B. that DPAA indicates the U.S. Air Force promoted Tom Derrickson to the rank of Colonel while in MIA status.

The Department of Defense conducted a ceremony at the Pentagon on Friday, 20 September 2019 in recognition of POW/MIA Recognition Day. Deputy Defense Secretary David L. Nordquist remembered the 1,587 MIAs from the Vietnam War as well as all those still unaccounted for from WWII, the Korean War, the Cold War and other conflicts. Since the 2018 Ceremony, DPAA has positively identified 7 Vietnam War MIAs. Colonel Thomas Gardner Derrickson II, inaugural USAFA Class of 1959, is one of those 1,587 MIAs unaccounted for in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam War. He is the only graduate from the inaugural U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs class of 1959 who is still MIA.

This is the link to the DoD story about the ceremony:

https://www.defense.gov/explore/story/Article/1967474/prisoners-of-war-missing-in-action-remembered-at-pentagon-ceremony/

This is the link to the C-Span video of the ceremony:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?464524-1/pentagon-hosts-national-powmia-recognition-day-ceremony