United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Paul F. Lorence (February 17, 1955 – April 15, 1986), a weapon systems officer (WSO), was killed when his F-111F fighter-bomber, tail number 389 and callsign Karma 52, was shot down in action off the coast of

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

, on April 15, 1986.

Biography

Captain Lorence was a 1980 graduate of San Francisco State University, and was commissioned through Air Force ROTC. He completed USAF Undergraduate Navigator Training (UNT) and was assigned to the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing as an F-111 weapon systems officer (WSO). On April 14, 1986, the United States launched Operation El Dorado, an Air Force bombing raid into Libya in response to terrorist attacks. During the raid, Capt. Lorence and his pilot, Capt. Fernando Ribas-Dominicci, were shot down off the coast of Libya becoming the only casualties of the entire operation. Capt. Ribas-Dominicci's body was eventually returned by the Libyan government in 1989, however the location of Capt. Lorence's remains is still currently unknown.

Background

On April 14, 1986, in response to acts of terrorism then believed, and now confirmed, to have been sponsored by Libyan leader

Colonel Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spelling ...

– in particular, the

1986 Berlin discotheque bombing On 5 April 1986, three people were killed and 229 injured when ''La Belle'' discothèque was bombed in the Friedenau district of West Berlin. The entertainment venue was commonly frequented by United States soldiers, and two of the dead and 79 ...

of April 6 – and against the backdrop of heightened tension and clashes between the Libyan and U.S. navies over the disputed

Gulf of Sidra The Gulf of Sidra ( ar, خليج السدرة, Khalij as-Sidra, also known as the Gulf of Sirte ( ar, خليج سرت, Khalij Surt, is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya, named after the oil port of Sidra or ...

, the United States launched a surprise attack on targets in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

and other parts of Libya. Neither

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

nor

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

would agree to U.S. military aircraft overflying of their territory, so the 18 USAF F-111F fighter-bombers which took off from American airbases in Britain had to make a detour by following the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast before cutting into the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

''via'' the

Straits of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medit ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

to carry out their attack on Libya. An additional six F-111F aircraft had launched from RAF Lakenheath as airborne spares in the event of any type of malfunction. At a certain point in the flight, these six aircraft turned back to home station. In addition, the 18 F-111Fs were escorted by EF-111A Raven Radar Jamming aircraft which had launched from RAF Upper Heyford, United Kingdom. Numerous airborne KC-135 and KC-10 tanker aircraft were also part of the world's longest fighter mission along with other support aircraft. This package of aircraft which had departed the United Kingdom bound for Tripoli, Libya, was part of an overall coordinated strike mission with US Navy aircraft going after targets in Benghazi, Libya, on the same evening. Captain Lorence and his pilot (Maj.

Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci Major Fernando Luis Ribas-Dominicci (June 24, 1952 – April 15, 1986), was an F-111F pilot in the United States Air Force. He was killed in action during Operation El Dorado Canyon, the April 15, 1986, U.S. air raid on Libya. Early years ...

) were the only U.S. casualties in the bombing raid.

Recovering the bodies

On December 25, 1988, Gaddafi offered to release the body of Capt. Lorence to his family through

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

. But the body that was eventually handed over was identified by dental records as that of Capt. Ribas-Dominicci. According to the U.S government, Libya denies holding Lorence's remains. Family members have led an ongoing campaign to recover Lorence's body. In 1996, Lorence's childhood friend Theodore D. Karantsalis, a public records librarian, started another campaign to retrieve the body by April 15, 2006, the 20th anniversary of his death. On November 17, 2006, the federal government declassified and released details of Operation El Dorado Canyon to Karantsalis pursuant to a lawsuit styled Karantsalis v. Department of Defense filed in Miami, Florida.

Memorial

The names of Lorence and Ribas-Dominicci are engraved in the F-111 "Vark" Memorial Park located in

Clovis Clovis may refer to: People * Clovis (given name), the early medieval (Frankish) form of the name Louis ** Clovis I (c. 466 – 511), the first king of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler ** Clovis II (c. 634 – c. 657), ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. Both Lorence and Ribas-Dominicci were awarded the

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, w ...

and Ribas-Dominicci was posthumously promoted to the rank of

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

, effective April 15, 1986. The

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

(SFSU) Department of History established the Paul Lorence Scholarship, honoring Lorence. Lorence graduated in 1980 from SFSU

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in History.

Biography

Background

Recovering the bodies

Memorial

Notes

External links

Further reading