Hometown: New Paris, IN
Branch: U.S. Marine Corps
Unit: Marine All Weather Attack Squadron 533, Marine Attack Group 12, 1st Marine Air Wing
Military Honors: Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: May 3, 1968 - KIA in Quảng Binh Province, North Vietnam
Age: 25
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

Capt. Thomas Clem’s mother told The South Bend Tribune that her son was “hoping for 100 missions.” He was on his 87th mission when he disappeared over North Vietnam on May 3, 1968.

“Tom” was born to Daniel and Edna Clem in New Paris, a small town on the northern edge of Indiana, on May 31, 1942.

According to his older brother, James, “No two brothers were ever closer than he and I…although we were completely different. We grew up on a dairy farm in northern Indiana. But farming was not in his plan.”

Tom was mechanically inclined. His mother recalls that “he was always in his room working with his model airplanes and boats. He went on to real complicated types, electric models, and sometimes it would take him about a year to complete one and put it together. Once he built a boat he could put on the lake with remote controls on the shore.” James recalls that Tom built crystal radio sets and was a ham radio operator.

After graduating from Fairfield High School in nearby Goshen, Indiana, Tom traveled 50 miles east to enroll at Tri-State College in Angola, Indiana. There he double majored in electrical and aeronautical engineering. He’d pursue his degree a semester at a time, dropping out to work as a draftsman and then returning to Tri-State to continue his studies.

Realizing his Dream

Seeing an opportunity to realize his dream of being a pilot, Tom left college to enlist in the United States Marine Corps in 1966—one semester short of graduation. The South Bend Tribune reported that Tom achieved “one of the highest scores ever made to enter the Marine aviation cadet program.”

Beginning his flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, Clem was trained to fly a Grumman A-6A Intruder. He excelled in Flight School and was quickly promoted to First Lieutenant.

“In my opinion the A-6 was the most effective strike aircraft the U.S. Navy had during the Vietnam War,” recalled Rear Admiral James Seely. “It could do day missions as well as any other aircraft, and was much superior at night. We had system problems with the A-6A, but it was, in fact, the only true all-weather aircraft in the fight.”

Tom’s brother James was a schoolteacher at the time, and invited Tom to speak in his classroom. There Tom met Pamela Lee, one of James’ students. Tom and Pamela began dating and were later engaged to be married.

In the fall of 1967, 1stLt Thomas Clem was sent to Vietnam and assigned to the Marine All Weather Attack Squadron 533, Marine Attack Group 12, 1st Marine Air Wing. Edna Clem recalls, “Tom didn’t fly on nice days. He did all his flying at night, in rainy weather, or in fog.”

Lost over North Vietnam

On May 3, 1968, 1stLt Clem was piloting his Intruder, conducting an armed reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam along with bombardier/navigator 1stLt Robert D. Avery of Morgantown, North Carolina.

A report from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency details what happened on that day:

On May 3, 1968, an A-6A Intruder (bureau number 154164, call sign Hillborn 18) with two crew members participated in a radar-controlled strike mission over enemy targets in North Vietnam. No radio transmissions were received from the aircraft after it left the target area, and radio and radar contact were lost when the aircraft was near the vicinity of (GC) 48Q XE 662 409. The Intruder failed to return to base, and both crew members were not seen again. Radar and visual searches for the aircraft were conducted through May 21 but were unsuccessful. Ground searches for the crash site were prevented at the time due to enemy presence in the area.

Both Marines were declared Missing in Action (MIA). While the families maintained some hope that Clem and Avery had survived the crash and might be found in a Prisoner of War camp, the two were officially declared Killed in Action (KIA) in 1973.

The crash site was discovered 28 years later, with little remaining except small pieces of a flight suit, a boot, a harness, and a bit of Plexiglas.

Lost, but not forgotten

The Marine Corps posthumously promoted 1stLt Clem to the rank of Captain. At the time of the crash, he was 25 years old, just weeks away from his 26th birthday. His brother James speculated, “I don’t believe he was ever a Prisoner of War. His plane was carrying 500 lb. bombs, and he once told me, ‘I will never be a prisoner.’”

In Honolulu, Captain Thomas Dean Clem’s name is engraved on the American Battle Monument Commission’s “Courts of the Missing,” along with the others who were missing from the Vietnam War. He is honored at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., where his name is inscribed on Panel 54E, Line 24.

Captain Clem’s family gathered for a ceremony on April 15, 2024, at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., where a headstone was placed in honor of the lost pilot (Section MH, Site 38).

Among Capt. Clem’s personal items returned to his parents was a never-sent letter he was writing to “Dear Youth.” In the partially completed letter, Clem described how his Marine Attack Group 12 was helping the Vietnamese children of the Chu Lai community. Through the Marine Civic Action Program, Group 12 built schools and participated in their operation.

Clem wrote, “Since the Vietnamese do not want and will not accept charity, we supply the materials and enough instruction to allow them to make their own bricks and lay them.” He continued, “Supplies are short…almost all families in the Republic of Vietnam are needy.”

Sources
Card photo original (digitally restored) and story details provided by the family.
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency: CAPT Thomas Dean Clem
The South Bend Tribune, June 21, 1970: Family Waits Quietly in Hope
The Goshen News, May 25, 2015: Ultimate Sacrifice: Family, friends remember MIA Thomas Clem
Honor States: Thomas Dean Clem
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation: Thomas Dean Clem
American Battlefield Monuments Commission: Thomas Dean Clem
Find a Grave: Thomas Dean Clem