February 2005 - Finally, after 53 years, Captain Troy Cope, United States Air Force, has returned to his home and family from the Korean War. Captain Cope was shot down over the Yalu River in 1952. This is his story.
On 16 September 1952, Captain Troy "Gordy" Cope, and Captain Karl Dittmer, pilots in the 335th FIS, 4th FIG, climbed into the cockpits of their F-86E Sabres for another mission to an area of North Korea known as "MiG Alley". On this fateful day, Capts. Cope and Dittmer would engage up to six Soviet-built MiG-15 jet fighters over the Yalu River. The MiGs were flown by Soviet fighter pilots from the 518th Fighter Regiment.
During the melee, a MiG-15 piloted by Capt. Vasily Zhuravel, pulled in behind Capt. Cope's F-86 and fired his cannons. Several cannon shells struck Capt. Cope's Sabre and witness' saw the airplane burst into flames and go into a dive across the Yalu River. Capt. Troy Cope was never heard from again and was declared `Missing In Action'. With no word about his fate from the communists following the cease fire in July 1953, Capt. Cope was presumed dead in late 1953.
However, he was still carried on the official rolls as Missing In Action. Had he died in the crash? Had he ejected and been captured, only to be sent to a Soviet gulag as several other American pilots had been. No one knew exactly. However, in 1995, a significant event took place. An American businessman was visiting China and stopped to see the Korean War Museum in Dandong, China. The MiGs had been based at nearby Antung Airbase, just across the Yalu River from where the dogfight had occurred between Capt. Cope and Capt. Zhuravel.
Inside the museum, the American businessman discovered a display of artifacts from the war, including the dog tags of an American pilot - Capt. Troy Cope. He made a `rubbing' of the dog tags and turned them over to officials at the U.S. Embassy. An official investigation was immediately started. In 1999, a breakthrough occurred when Defense Department MIA analysts were allowed to search the Russian archives in Podolsk.
Within the archives was a detailed report on the downing of an American F-86 that took place on 16 September 1952, the day on which Capt. Cope was shot down. The report included the after-action report from Capt. Zhuravel describing how he shot down the American Sabre. Also included were eyewitness reports from a Chinese villager who was able to describe the location of the crash site. The report noted that "an enemy airplane crashed into a house in a village and the pilot's body was found in the wreckage.", and noted the exact location of the crash site.
As a result of these findings, American and Chinese officials met in Beijing in October 2003 to discuss excavating the crash site for any possible remains. The
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