Thomas M. McLaughlin

I'm sorry that it took me so long to find this site. I hope the family is still monitoring entries. Tom was truly a gentleman and a scholar, and it hurts knowing that we'll never get a chance to catch up on memories at Vietnam unit reunions.

Tom was my roommate at the time he was shot down in Laos in the midst of a pitched battle involving a large force of North Vietnamese regulars. I vividly remember staring at his empty bunk that night knowing that I would probably never see him again. The highlight of my tour was seeing both of them return after a successful combat rescue the next morning.

We were together again as instructor pilots in Arizona when he made the decision to leave the Air Force for the Harvard Business School. Unfortunately, we lost contact with each other shortly thereafter and I only recently learned of his untimely passing.