Paul F. Lorence

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Capt. Paul F. Lorence United States Air Force
died April 15, 1986
U.S. Air Force Photo
Place of birth	Oakland, California
Place of death	Libya
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Air Force
Years of service	1981–1986
Rank	Captain
Unit	48th Tactical Fighter Wing
Battles/wars	Operation El Dorado Canyon
Awards	Purple Heart Air Medal

Captain Paul F. Lorence (February 17, 1955–April 15, 1986), a weapons systems officer, was killed when his F-111F fighter-bomber, callsign Karma 52, was shot down in action off the coast of Libya, on April 15, 1986. Paul Lorence grew up in Oakland, California where he attended Skyline Highschool and at the age of 17 joined the USAF, after 4 years he left to attend San Francisco State University where he majored in History. After completing his degree he attended Officer Training School at Mather AFB in 1981 where he was awarded Most Outstanding Officer and the title for Flying Excellence. He was then sent out to RAF Lakenheath to begin a career as a F-111 WSO. It was there that he met his wife to be in 1983 with whom they had a son in 1985.

1 Background
2 Recovering the bodies
3 Memorial
4 Notes
5 External links
6 Further reading

[edit] Background

On April 14, 1986, in response to acts of terrorism thought to have been sponsored by Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi – in particular, the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing 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 United States launched a surprise attack on targets in Tripoli and other parts of Libya. Neither France nor Spain would agree to U.S. military aircraft overflying of their territory, so the 24 USAF F-111F fighter-bombers which took off from American airbases in Britain had to make a 1300-mile^[vague] detour by following the Atlantic coast before cutting into the Mediterranean via the Straits of Gibraltar to carry out their attack on Libya.

Lorence and his pilot (Maj. Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci) were the only U.S. casualties in the bombing raid, which was code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon.

[edit] Recovering the bodies

The Libyans had always denied that they were in possession of the bodies of the two crew members but on December 25, 1988 – nearly three years after the U.S. attack and just four days after the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing – Gaddafi offered to release the body of Capt. Lorence to his family through the good offices of Pope John Paul II.^[1] But the body that was eventually handed over was identified by dental records as that of Capt. Ribas-Dominicci. Lorence's remains were therefore believed to be still in Libyan hands and an on-going campaign by family members since the loss of Karma 52 has aimed to return Lorence to them. However, in 1996 a childhood friend, Theodore D. Karantsalis, a public records librarian, started another campaign; the campaign aimed, albeit unsuccessfully, to retrieve the body by April 15, 2006, the 20th anniversary of his death. However, 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. See http://www.fletc.com ^[2]

[edit] Memorial

The names of Lorence and Ribas-Dominicci are engraved in the F-111 "Vark" Memorial Park located in Clovis, New Mexico. Both Lorence and Ribas-Dominicci were awarded the Purple Heart and Ribas-Dominicci was posthumously promoted to the rank of Major, effective April 15, 1986.

The San Francisco State University (SFSU) Department of History established the Paul Lorence Scholarship, honoring Lorence. Lorence graduated in 1980 from SFSU summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History.^[3]