WILBOURN, JAMES W III

Name: James W "TREY" Wilbourn III
Rank/Branch: Captain/US Marine Corps
Unit:  VMA-542
Age: 29
Home City:
Date of Loss: 02/23/91
Country of Loss: KUWAIT
Loss Coordinates:
Status: Missing in Action
Status in 2002: Presumed Dead
Acft/Vehicle/Ground:  AV8B  HARRIER

Other Personnel in Incident: (unknown)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 19 March 1991 from one
or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 2021

REMARKS: OPERATION DESERT STORM

SYNOPSIS: During the early weeks of the Middle East war, each time a
Coalition serviceman was shot down or captured, extensive media coverage
followed. The public and POW/MIA families alike had the information they
wanted at the touch of a dial.

When Coalition POWs began being showed on Iraqi television, the world
suffered with their families as they haltingly gave coerced "peace"
statements. This propaganda effort on the part of the Iraqis actually had a
positive effect in the United States. Families at least knew their missing
loved one was alive, and could assess their mental and physical condition
from propaganda interviews.

Then the "information gap" began. The Pentagon announced that it would no
longer release any information other than name, rank, age and branch of
service of missing or captured personnel. This step was taken, they said, to
protect the well-being of prisoners and to avoid jeopardizing search and
rescue efforts for the missing.

Pentagon briefings and television reports listed the loss of aircraft and
statistics, and the human element of the war was gone. Even long after
search and rescue efforts would cease, no information was released on
missing personnel. Intelligence reports indicating "missing" people were
captured were largely ignored. In the 6 weeks following the televised
propaganda interviews by Coalition POWs, only one Coalition serviceman was
declared POW - and even then, no information was released about him.

The name of Marine Capt. James Wilbourn, age 29, appeared on Pentagon
missing lists in early March 1991. There has been no other information
released by media or government sources about him.

In early March 1991, 21 American POWs were released by the Iraqis, but James
Wilbourn was not among them. No further word of his fate has been released.
Then in mid-March, Wilbourn was declared dead. It was not announced whether
the declaration was based on the return of remains or circumstantial.

Several thousand families whose loved ones remain missing in Vietnam, Korea,
and World War II are very concerned about the "information gap" regarding
the missing and prisoners in the Middle East war. They remember being told
to "keep quiet" for the sake of their loved ones. They know that it was only
when they became actively vocal that world pressure stopped the torture and
ill treatment of their men.

They know that nameless, faceless men are easily left behind at the end of
hostilities. They are afraid that another generation of prisoners and
missing, unknown to the American public, will be abandoned to the enemy.

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https://www.alabamaveterans.org/the-story-of-trey-wilbourn

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https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/U.S.%20Marines%20in%20

the%20Persian%20Gulf%2090-91%20The%203D%20MARINE%20AIRCRAFT
%20WING%20%20PCN%2019000314900_2.pdf

... There was one last ominous note before the ground campaign began. At 1945 on 23 February,
the evening before the start of the ground offensive, an AV8B from VMA-542 piloted by
Captain James N. Wilbourn II was lost on a night bombing mission in central Kuwait.
His was the lead aircraft in a section of AV- THE 3D MARINE AIRCRAFT WING 145
8Bs, call sign "Pride 16." He was in a bombing run marked by a bomb from a departing
Fast FAC's escort, and listed as killed in action. He was the first 3d MAW aviator to be
killed in action...

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https://media.defense.gov/2017/Apr/05/2001727299/-1/-1/0/B_0102_
WHITCOMB_COMBAT_SEARCH_RESCUE.PDF

DESERT SABRE, WEEK SIX 211 I083/M018 – Pride 16/AV-8 Harrier, USMC Capt James “LZ”
Wilbourn, VMA-542, was reported lost on a night sortie five miles north of the Ali Al Salem Air
Base.6 Flying with Maj Dan Peters, he had already flown one mission over Kuwait. Returning
with another load of bombs, they rendezvoused with a Marine A-6 that had a lucrative target.
Due to the darkness, the Harrier pilots made individual passes. Peters watched Wilbourn roll
in on the target. He lost sight of the Harrier in the darkness but did observe the explosion of
Wilbourn’s bombs. This was followed almost immediately by another larger blast. Peters thought
it was a secondary explosion, but when Wilbourn did not answer his radio calls, Peters realized
that he was down. He initiated CSAR procedures, and throughout the night, crews in F-15Es,
F-111s, and AV-8s searched for him. Peters did not see what shot down Wilbourn. It was entirely
possible that he became fixated on his target and flew into the ground.7 The young captain was
the first US marine actually confirmed as killed in the war.8 ...