THE WALL OF FACES

For Dominic
I was an Air Intelligence Officer (1355), VA-52, Air Wing 19, on the Tico with Mike. I used to debrief all the A-4 pilots of VA-192 and VA-195. They were all great guys. Flying over NVN, they were shot at every time they went there. They all had nerves of steel, and Mike was as calm as anyone could be. As I recall, while on an Iron Hand mission, he got hit and was last seen flying inverted into a cloud.
In 1968-9 I served a year on an Army Advisory Team in Vietnam. In my conduct I always tried to emulate my aviator friends.
In the summer of 1967 I visited VA-192 in California to see the guys. Skipper Ed McKellar told me he had heard that Mike was a POW.
I can be contacted, Dominic, at [email protected]
You had a great, wonderful Uncle.
/s/ Richey Hope

The "Friends of Rocky Versace" remember one of Rocky's fellow Vietnam War POW/MIAs and posthumous Medal of Honor recipients, Captain Michael John Estocin, on what would've been his 89th birthday - 27 April 2020. Captain Estocin has an "In Memory Of" cenotaph in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, CA; Memorial Section "A," Site 112.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) website at the below link, the MIA status of Captain Michael John Estocin, U.S. Navy posthumous Medal of Honor recipient, is ACTIVE PURSUIT:

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000KZPQEA4

As of the latest DPAA update (24 April 2020), Navy Captain Estocin is one of 1,587 Americans still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam War. Of those 1,587 Americans, he is one of 3 posthumous Medal of Honor recipients who is still POW/MIA.

https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/VietnamAccounting/pmsea_una_ALL_20200424.pdf

On the date of his loss, 26 April 1967, Lieutenant Commander Estocin was a member of Attack Squadron (VA) 192 assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14). He piloted an A-4E Skyhawk jet aircraft on a surface-to-air (SAM) suppression mission over North Vietnam. His jet entered a cloud layer after being hit by a SAM and that was the last it was seen. Some reports indicate LCDR Estocin became a captive of the North Vietnamese. He did not return to U.S. control during "Operation Homecoming" in 1973. While carried in MIA status, the U.S. Navy promoted LCDR Estocin to Commander and, later, Captain.

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. Captain Michael John Estocin, U.S. Navy posthumous Medal of Honor recipient, is one of those 1,587 MIAs unaccounted for in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam War. He is also one of 3 posthumous Medal of Honor recipients from the Vietnam War whose remains have not been returned by the communists. The other 2 Vietnam War POW/MIAs are: (1) Colonel Donald G. Cook, USMC and (2) Captain Humbert R. "Rocky" Versace, USA.

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

MIA Captain Michael John Estocin, U.S. Navy posthumous Medal of Honor recipient, has his name chiseled into one of the stone "Courts of the Missing" (Vietnam War Section, Navy Stone) at the Honolulu Memorial in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (the "Punchbowl") on the island of Oahu in the state of Hawaii. See the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) website at this link:

https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/estocin%3Dmichael