BROMS, EDWARD JAMES JR.

Name: Edward James Broms, Jr.
Rank/Branch: O2/U.S. Navy
Unit: Attack Squadron 66, USS INTREPID (CVS 11)
Date of Birth: 06 May 1943
Home City of Record: Meadville PA
Date of Loss: 01 August 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 181100N 1055100E (WF908109)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: A4C
Refno: 1242
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK 1998.

REMARKS: RADIO CONTACT LOST

SYNOPSIS: The McDonnell Douglas A4 Skyhawk was intended to provide the Navy and
Marine Corps with an inexpensive, lightweight attack and ground support
aircraft. The design emphasized low-speed control and stability during take-off
and landing, as well as strength enough for catapult launch and carrier
landings. The plane was so compact that it did not need folding wings for
aboardship storage and handling.

LTJG Edward J. Broms was a pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 66 onboard the
aircraft carrier USS INTREPID in the Gulf of Tonkin. On August 1, 1968, he was
assigned the fourth position in a 4-plane day strike mission on Dong Dun, Ha
Tiny Province, North Vietnam, code-named "Rolling Thunder".

Broms launched in his A4C Skyhawk attack bomber aircraft and the four aircraft
rolled in on the target as briefed. During pullout, Broms was heard to transmit,
"Puffs (flak) all around me." No other radio or visual contact was made tih LTJG
Broms and an extensive electronic and visual search was started. The search was
called off when all efforts produced negative results. the opinion of the
incident review board was that there was a low probability of survival.

A Radio Hanoi broadcast confirmed the loss of an A4 aircraft during this same
time frame, yet no mention was made of the pilot. LTJG Broms was classified
Missing in Action. It was felt that the enemy very probably knew his fate.

The following day, three American pilots recently released by Hanoi arrived in
Laos and reported that they had been well treated. The majority of prisoners, it
was learned later, were not well treated. When 591 American prisoners of war
were released at the end of the war in 1973, Broms was not among them. The
Vietnamese deny any knowledge of him.

Alarmingly, evidence continues to mount that Americans were left as prisoners in
Southeast Asia and continue to be held today. Unlike "MIAs" from other wars,
most of the nearly 2500 Americans who remain missing in Southeast Asia can be
accounted for. Government officials have said it is their belief that Americans
are being held, but have not yet found the formula that would bring them home.

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