MC MORROW, JOHN P.

Name: John P. McMorrow
Branch/Rank: UNITED STATES NAVY/E3
Unit: AIR AMERICA MEDIC
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record:  Brooklyn, NY
Date of Loss: 15-May-61
Country of Loss: LAOS
Loss Coordinates: 193000 North  1030000 East
Status (in 1973):
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: H34
Missions:
Refno: 0008

Other Personnel in Incident: EDWARD SHORE, pilot; GRANT WOLFKILL


Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined Action
Combat Casualty File.  2018

REMARKS:  620817 RELEASED

No further information available at this time.


 
Subject: Update information
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2017 06:58:01 +0000 (UTC)
From: Justin Jackson-Mann 
   

Hi:

 

I found the obituary for Grant Wolfkill http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/w/w134.htm with some
more information about him at http://www.usmccca.org/archives/11156 which also has his photograph
in case you want to add it to your site.

His full name was Grant Fassett Wolfkill.

His DOB is November 29, 1922.  He died on June 14, 2017 at his residence in Shelton,
Washington at age 94.

He worked for NBC as a field producer. While with NBC, Grant was assigned to cover a
pending peace conference in Laos. His helicopter was shot down over Laos, and he, the pilot
Army Captain Edward R. Shore, Jr. and a Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class John P. McMorrow 
were captured, imprisoned and shackled for fifteen-months by the communist Pathet Lao.  He
was released on  August 17, 1962 with Shore and McMorrow, along with Special Forces
Sergeant Orville R. Ballenger and Army Major Lawrence R. Bailey, 

The aircraft information is at http://www.helis.com/database/cn/18772/ 

The Military Times has a webpage for Edward Shore https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/s/s171.htm  
which gives his full name as Edward Riddick Shore, Jr. and has a photograph of him at 
http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=27975 and his home of record is
Knoxville Tennessee

 

 
Subject:   News article from the Adirondack Enterprise dated August 17, 1962
Date:   Sat, 6 Jan 2018 13:03:10 +0000 (UTC)
From:   Justin Jackson-Mann
   

Five Americans freed by Reds in Vietnam

VIENTIANE American , Laos (AP)—Five Americans and a Filipino held captive for more than a
year by pro-Communist forces were released today.

The men, who had all grown beards during their captivity,  were cheered by a crowd of several
hundred as they emerged from the twin-engine Soviet plane that brought them to Vientiane from
Pathet Lao headquarters in the Plaine des Jarres.

Those released were Maj. Lawrence Bailey, Laurel, Md., assistant military attaché at the U.S.
Embassy in Vientiane; John McMorrow, Brooklyn, N.Y.; John Shore Jr., Galloway, Tenn.; Sgt.
Orville Ballenger, Columbus, Ohio;  NBC cameraman Grant Wolfkill of Shelton, Wash., and
Lorenzo Frigillana of the Philippines...