PAUL THOMAS LOONEY
PANEL 19E ROW 084 - 10-May-67

Captain Paul Thomas Looney 089775/7562 USMCR was from Shelburne Falls, Mass. He was born on June 10, 1941. He was 25 years old at the time of his death. He died of wounds received while flying with HMM-164 during an attempted night emergency extract of a surrounded Marine recon team code-named "Breaker" in the vicinity of Khe Sanh in Quang Tri Province. During the extract attempt, conducted under aircraft flares, his aircraft came under heavy fire from automatic weapons, rockets and possibly anti-aircraft fire. Attempts were made to suppress the fire, but the enemy was too well dug in, and after the aircraft had been seriously damaged, the mission had to be aborted. For his part in the action, Captain Looney was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously. His body was returned with the aircraft to Marble Mountain. He was married. His religion was Roman Catholic. His race was officially listed as Caucasian. He had four years service at the time of his death.

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