Welcome to Mike's Web Site

Hi -- My name is Mike and I live about 45 miles NW of Chicago. I'm a Vietnam Veteran, having served there with the 101st Airborne Division in 1971-72. For fellow vets out there, I had basic training at Ft. Polk, LA, then spent eight months at Ft. Bliss, TX, learning to speak Vietnamese. After that, eight weeks of Interrogation School at Ft. Holabird, MD. I was stationed in Vietnam near the old imperial city of Hue, in Camp Eagle, the HQ of the 101st Airborne Division (101st Military Intelligence Company). During my tour of duty I was awarded the Bronze Star.

My interests include photography, golf (about a 15 handicap), fishing (catch and release only), and woodworking.

One of my favorite hobbies is photography. I used this hobby while in Vietnam to take intelligence pictures for the 101st Airborne.

Thomas A. Dolan

August 15, 1948-August 10, 1971

(Tom's photo courtesy of his son Steve.)

Thomas A. Dolan and Paul J. Bates, Jr. - the official record needs to be set straight. Notice the "cross" in front of the names indicating "missing in action." I was there the day Tom and Paul died. I know where they went down to this day (I still have the map coordinates). Tom was officially (finally) declared a "casualty" on September 5, 1978, and Paul Bates was officially declared a casualty on February 6, 1974. Their actual casualty date was August 10, 1971, in Quang Tri province, Republic of South Vietnam, near the DMZ. Their remains were never recovered. Capt. Paul J. Bates of Mesa, AZ, was the pilot, and the back seat observer was Sgt. Thomas A. Dolan of Baltimore, MD. Their remains still lie where they crashed.

Here is the text from the letter I wrote home the next day: "Every day our shop (G-2 Air) sends up two missions of reconnaissance birds from Phu Bai. Occasionally the AO's (aerial observers) come down to talk to us. Most of them are Spec 4's and Spec 5's. They don't fly the planes, warrant officers do (in this case Capt. Paul Bates). They sit in the back seat with a map and do the visual sightings. Well, a friend of mine, Tom Dolan, was in one of the birds. Yesterday his plane crashed and burned in the DMZ, in an area infested with NVA regulars. We sent everything up there to see if they could get Tom and Capt. Bates out: choppers, medivacs, recon planes, even the Air Force. One of our choppers got down close enough to see the wreckage and stated that there were no survivors - he could see the two bodies in the plane. The ironic part is that they weren't shot down. I debriefed the AO in our other plane who saw it all happen. He said Paul and Tom's plane stalled on a steep climb and went down nose first, crashed, and burned."

So the "official" record of this incident has several errors. The actual date of casualty was August 10, 1971. Tom and Paul are listed as "Casualty type: Hostile, died while missing" - which is "technically" correct - as Army jargon goes. However, they list it as a "helicopter, non-crew" while it was, in actuality, a light observation plane (O-1G Cessnas, what we called "bird dog" planes). Now, the record is clarified.

This is the type of aircraft that Paul and Tom were flying in when they went down near the DMZ:

As Paul Harvey would say "Here's the rest of the story". While perusing the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Wall site (see link below) I found that someone had Tom's MIA bracelet and was looking for Tom's relatives. Since I had been searching for Tom's relatives for years, I wrote to this person - Marie M. - in Florida, and inquired how long she had had Tom's MIA bracelet. It turns out that Marie has kept this bracelet since 1974. After corresponding back and forth about Tom's death, Marie decided that I should have the bracelet. She mailed it to me the next day. Thank you Marie! You did great honor to Tom's memory!!

I occasionally visit Washington, D.C., and always stop at The Wall to pay my respects. On my latest visit, on July 12, 2000, I again paid my respects at The Wall to Tom and Paul. Here's the bracelet Marie sent me. I have since sent the bracelet to one of Tom's sons.

I have also contacted both of my Senators (Senators Durbin and now former Senator Fitzgerald) as well as Senator John McCain of Arizona to try and find out why the remains of Tom and Paul have never been recovered. They went down in their plane at the coordinates XD829654, or, 16 degrees 51' 58" North latitude and 106 degrees 43' 58" East longitude. If I know the exact coordinates, you would think our government, as well as the Vietnamese government, knows where their remains are. If so, why have they never been returned home? I'm waiting for responses from the Senators (as of May 24, 2000).

Update January 22, 2001: Not surprisingly, I still have not heard a word from either of my Senators or from my Congressman. None are up for reelection this year (my Congressman is retiring) - but I have a long memory. Thanks for nothing, Senator Fitzgerald (now former Senator) and Senator Durbin, and (now retired) Congressman Porter. Senator McCain replied on January 8, 2001. He apologized for the late response and indicated that he has contacted the Department of Defense about this matter and asked the DOD to send a prompt response directly to me.

Update June 27, 2000: In response to one of my queries, the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office of the Department of Defense sent me the following information (this is an excerpt from the two page letter dated June 21, 2000): "Since gaining access to Vietnam in 1988, DoD personnel have conducted two investigations in an effort to account for Captain Bates and Sergeant Dolan. Despite these efforts, we have been unable to locate any trace of the aircraft or any witnesses to the event; both men remain unaccounted for."

This leads me to believe one of two things: that they (the DoD) have the incorrect coordinates and are looking in the wrong place (the aircraft would not have rusted to nothing in less than 30 years, especially since it contained much material such as plastic and plexiglass that would have survived intact) or that the Vietnamese government (or local Vietnamese) have long since removed the aircraft and the bodies of Tom Dolan and Paul Bates to places unknown. I am seeking further information on this case from records in The Library of Congress.

I recently received photocopies of the Dolan/Bates incident from the Library of Congress, under The Freedom of Information Act. It cost me over $50 to obtain these photocopies, but they have provided me with some additional information on this case, officially known as Case No. 1766.

Sifting through over 50 pages of records from the date of the incident through December 11, 1995 (which was the date of the last letter from the DoD to Cpt. Bates' father regarding the incident). Much of the data is repetitive and loaded with military jargon, but I have condensed it into the following highlights, arranged more or less chronologically:

August 14, 1971 - A board of inquiry was convened to investigate the incident. Their findings, and I quote:"...a search of the crash site in which Cpt. Paul J. Bates Jr., was involved was conducted to determine status of individuals, when the search team arrived over the area, the aircraft was still burning and there were no appearant (sic) signs of life in the immediate area; the search team did not land their aircraft due to unfavorable terrain, and the proximity of enemy positions; since the initial search was conducted, periodic search efforts have scanned the area of the crash site for signs of survivors; recovery of the remains of the crash will be accomplished when friendly troops are able to move in the area. A board of inquiry was convened on 14 August 1971 to begin deliberation of final disposition of individuals concerned."

September 27, 1971 - A quote from the board of inquiry findings: "The Board finds witness statements and Investigation into the crash indicative of death; however interpretation of AR 600-10, para 1-7 (f)(1) does not allow the Board to consider this as conclusive evidence of death. The Board recommends that the status of Cpt. Paul Bates and Specialist Thomas Dolan to continue as missing in action until conclusive evidence of death is available."

October 10, 1971 - In a letter from the Headquarters, United States Army, Vietnam, to the Department of the Army, Office of the Adjutant General, Casualty Division, Washington, DC, an excerpt: "Based upon the evidence presented in this Board of Inquiry, this headquarters does not concur with the recommendation of the convening authority. Recommend that the staus of Cpt. Paul J. Bates and Specialist Thomas A. Dolan be changed from missing in action to killed in action." (This did not happen at this time - the Army works VERY slowly.)

(The following is the most interesting and haunting piece of documentation I uncovered to date!)

April 27, 1972 - From an Army intelligence report dated April 24, 1972: "The following is raw and unevaluated information and has received no substantial review by intelligence analysts. Subject: Sighting of three PWs (Prisoners of War - my comment) in Quang Binh Province, NVN. Date of information September 1971. In late September 1971, (intelligence) source and ten other members of his company were on a rice supply detail and walking near a wooden bridge crossing the Xong Ron river....Quang Binh province when a vehicle (equivalent to our Jeep) slowed down to cross the bridge, at this time source and members of his unit noticed three Caucasians sitting in the rear seat of the vehicle. They motioned to the driver to stop the vehicle so that they could observe the three men in the rear seat of the vehicle. The vehicle was stopped and source was able to observe the three Caucasians for approx. three minutes at a distance of five meters. The driver of the vehicle told source's group that they were prisoners and were captured in Quang Tri province, the date or actual place of capture was not revealed by the driver. (Ed: source assumed they were Americans because they were tall.) After approx. three minutes the vehicle with the prisoners crossed the wooden bridge and proceeded in a northeast direction toward Highway One."

This intelligence report goes on to describe the three Caucasians in detail. There is a handwritten note at the bottom of one of the photocopied intelligence pages which reads:"Possibly Bates, Paul J., Jr., and Dolan, Thomas A., lost 10 Aug 1971 in Quang Tri, vicinity XD829654. PW #1 sounds like Dolan. #2 could be Bates."

This intelligence report was apparently never followed up on. I found no other reference to this intelligence report in any other records received from the Library of Congress. And we wonder why so many people still think the Vietnamese government is holding captive some of our soldiers....what purpose does it serve them?

February 6, 1974 - From a review of the case: "All available information pertaining to his (Cpt. Bates') status has been given careful consideration. The circumstances attendant to support a presumption of survival can lead only to the conclusion that Captain Bates is no longer alive. Further, the debriefing of returned prisoners of war following the ceasefire agreement of 27 January 1973, has revealed no information of his fate. Therefore, a determination has been made by the Department of the Army to change the status of Capt. Paul J. Bates, Jr., from missing in action 10 August 1971, to dead, as of 6 February 1974."

And another mysterious excerpt from the same document: "It should be noted that due to the conditions of a Restraining Order issued 6 August 1973, by US Southern District Court of New York, against the Department of Defense, currently in effect, no change can be made in the missing status of SP5 Thomas A. Dolan, the other person aboard the aircraft, until such time as his next of kin requests in writing that they be exempted from the Restraining Order...."

(Note: Tom Dolan's "official" date of casualty was later set at September 5, 1978 - more than 7 years after the incident.)

December 12, 1993 - The Vietnamese government allowed the United States to search for MIA's beginning in 1988. This is part of a report of the search for Bates and Dolan: "On 12 December 1993, a joint team visited Huong Ha District, Quang Tri Province, to investigate this case. An advance team attempted to visit the crash site but was forced to turn back due to the heavy rains." (My comment: real intelligent to go there in the height of the monsoon season!) "The team later flew over the crash site which is located in an isolated mountainous area with no hamlets or villages in the vicinity. The team observed no evidence of a crash site. The team recommended the case be reinvestigated during the dry season (January through July)."

May 4, 1994 - The next visit to the crash site coordinates: "On 4 May 1994, IE2 traveled to Lang Tria hamlet, Huong Son village, Quang Tri Province to investigate case 1766. This case involves the 10 August 1971 loss of two crew members of an O-1G aircraft while on a reconnaissance mission. The purpose of this reinvestigation was to survey the incident location associated with this case. The team conducted a surface search of a 500 X 500 meter area at the incident location with negative results. No aircraft wreakage, personal effects, remains, or isolated burial sites were found. The team canvassed local villagers for information pertaining to this case with negative results."

That's it, so far. No evidence found at the crash site...no evidence to indicate that the two men are indeed dead. And then there's the POW intelligence report. Draw your own conclusions. As I find out more - if I do - watch for it here.

April, 2001 - Add another chapter to the saga. With the help of the Baltimore Chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America, I have located several of Tom Dolan's relatives. The webmaster for the Baltimore VVA chapter saw my entry on The Virtual Wall, read the story of Tom and Paul, and forwarded the information to Tom's family. Tom's son contacted me and Tom's MIA bracelet has been forwarded to him. That bracelet, which Marie cherished all these years, has now reached its final destination.

The final chapter of this story awaits completion. However, it seems that, at least for now, it will remain unwritten.

Here's "my" piece of The Wall - made from remnants of the black granite that was used to construct the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Wall - it's engraved with my name, my unit, and my tour of duty. Thanks to President Nixon, who started withdrawing troops from Vietnam in late '71 and early '72, I was able to come home early - unlike many of my friends whose names are on the "real" Wall.

You can e-mail me at:

smokeymike47@gmail.com