THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. I am heartened you returned home after the passage of so many years though I wish it had been under very different circumstances. May you rest in eternal peace.

Dear Maj Patrick Wynne, Thank you for your service as a Pilot Systems Operator, and for graduating from the Air Force Academy. Glad you were identified in 1977, welcome home. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Lent has begun. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance, and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Major Patrick Edward Wynne was a 1963 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. His father, Colonel Edward Patrick Wynne, was a 1940 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, received his commission in the Signal Corps, then later branch transferred to the Air Corps (which became the U.S. Air Force in 1947). His younger brother, Michael, is USMA class of 1966, received his commission in the USAF and was later Secretary of the Air Force from 2005 - 2008.

Remembering Major Wynne on what would've been his 80th birthday - 8 October 2021.

Military service information for former MIA Major Patrick Edward Wynne, USAFA class of 1963, from the U.S. Air Force Academy Library is at this link/URL:

http://memwall.usafalibrary.com/#memwallhomepage

The graduates whose names are on this site are those who are on the Academy's Memorial Wall. Search, alphabetically, for the name of Patrick Wynne, USAFA Class of 1963, to learn more information about this Vietnam War former MIA.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) website at the below link, the communist Vietnamese returned the remains of former MIA Major Patrick Edward Wynne, USAFA class of 1963, in 1977:

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000pQkmuEAC

As of the latest DPAA updates (2 October 2020), Maj. Wynne is one of 1,053 American military and 513 Airmen whose remains have been recovered from Southeast Asia following the Vietnam War.

https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/VietnamAccounting/pmsea_acc_ALL_20201002.pdf
https://www.dpaa.mil/portals/85/VietnamAccounting/pmsea_acc_AIR%20FORCE_20201002.pdf

On the date of his loss, 8 August 1966, 1st Lt Wynne was a member of a 2-man crew on an F-4C Phantom II jet aircraft from the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron performing an armed reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam. While pulling out of the attack, the F-4 was hit by AAA fire. Both crewman, 1st Lt Wynne and Capt. Lawrence Golberg, safely ejected and were later captured by communist North Vietnamese forces. While in MIA status, the U.S. Air Force promoted 1st Lt Donahue together with his classmates to the rank of Major and Capt. Golberg to Colonel.