
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 9, 1991                   TAG: 9104090614
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short

NAVY AVIATOR'S BODY RECOVERED FROM THE GULF

The remains of a Navy aviator who was reported shot down in a bombing mission over Iraq have been recovered from the Persian Gulf, Navy officials said.

The body of Lt. Patrick Connor, 25, a bombardier-navigator on an A-6 Intruder, was found March 31, said Lt. Phillip McGuinn, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon.

Connor was attached to Attack Squadron 36 at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach. The unit flew off the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.

The remains were taken to the military's main mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, Del., and positively identified as Connor's last Thursday, McGuinn said.

The pilot of Connor's aircraft, Lt. Cmdr. Barry Cooke, 35, is still listed as missing in action, McGuinn said. Their plane was shot down on Feb. 2.

Connor will be buried in a military service at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday.

Connor, originally from Columbia, Mo., was a Navy ROTC graduate at the University of North Carolina. He had been in the Navy for three years and eight months.

by CNB