FL FL - Fort Lauderdale, WhtMale 1176UMFL, 21-30, 'US Paratrooper' tattoo, May'84

tifflee · Mar 26, 2011

From Broward Sheriff's Office: Operation Found & Forgotten

Profile: 1984 Drowning (Fort Lauderdale 84-73082)

Body Found: May 28, 1984
Crime Scene: He was found floating in a canal at the rear of a building in the 500 block of Bayshore Drive, Fort Lauderdale.
Description: He was a white male with brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a tan bathing suit There were distinctive tattoos on both arms. The tattoo on his left arm read Born to Fly Free" with a picture of the winged horse Pegasus. He had a U.S. Paratrooper tattoo on his right arm depicting a skull with a red beret.
Approx. Age: 18-25

Composite sketch

Tattoo 1

Tattoo 2

Doe Network profile: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1176umfl.html

Discrepancies:

1. Broward Sheriff's Office lists the date the UID was found as May 28, 1984 while Doe Network lists it as May 26, 1984.

2. Doe Network lists the second tattoo as "Born to Fly" tattooed over a winged horse skull which is very different than the tattoo image (same on both sites) which shows the saying under the winged horse Pegasus.

tifflee · Mar 31, 2011

Does anyone on this site know paratroopers as family or friends? Or is/was a paratrooper?

As a "civy," I admit I am fairly ignorant about how the social community of the military works, but I did some searches online and it seems there are many paratrooper forums. This might be a very outlandish idea, but I was wondering if it made sense to circulate this John Doe's tattoos on these forums to see if anyone recognizes them?

I figure there are a few general reasons why he may have these tattoos. 1) He served as a paratrooper, 2) he had a close relative or friend who served as a paratrooper and he is honoring them, 3) he admires paratroopers and got the tattoos for fun, 4) he just liked the designs and got the designs for fun, or 5) he was pretending to be/have been a paratrooper.

If it is #1 and maybe #2, I thought perhaps someone in these forums remembers a fellow paratrooper or person who hung out with a paratrooper with this type of ink. While one of his tattoos had standard themes I easily found online among paratrooper tattoos, his "Born to Fly Free" pegasus seems unique.

At first, I thought law enforcement at the time would know if he had been in the military since his fingerprints would be on file. But, he was found in 1984 so checking would have been really hard, right? And, he was found in water so perhaps no fingerprints could be pulled.

In any case, I did a search for paratrooper/airborne infantry tattoos and came up with a lot that share similar themes with this UID's.

The skull and cap showed up in several examples I saw.

The distinctive wings behind the skull also show up a lot:

carbuff · Mar 31, 2011

Circulating it in paratrooper groups sounds like an excellent idea to me.

tifflee · Mar 31, 2011

Thanks, carbuff! I am asking friends to see if anyone personally knows a paratrooper and also hoping someone on this forum has a connection. I thought a fellow paratrooper might make for an easier introduction to the topic at hand. The big forums seem to be paratrooper.net and armyparatrooper.org although maybe someone in-the-know has a better starting point.

Still hoping to find someone who has a connection! In the meantime, I may start trying to find these forums' administrators and emailing them directly rather than posting on the forums since that seems a bit awkward disrupting their space to congregate and reminisce.

carbuff · Mar 31, 2011

tifflee said:
Thanks, carbuff! I am asking friends to see if anyone personally knows a paratrooper and also hoping someone on this forum has a connection. I thought a fellow paratrooper might make for an easier introduction to the topic at hand. The big forums seem to be paratrooper.net and armyparatrooper.org although maybe someone in-the-know has a better starting point.

Still hoping to find someone who has a connection! In the meantime, I may start trying to find these forums' administrators and emailing them directly rather than posting on the forums since that seems a bit awkward disrupting their space to congregate and reminisce.

Yes, I think approaching the forum admins is the most courteous and probably most effective way. You're really on top of this!

CarlK90245 · Mar 31, 2011

One of the tattoos specifies "82nd Airborne". If he died in May 84, perhaps he was a veteran of the Oct 83 Grenada invasion, which involved the 82nd Airborne.

tifflee · Mar 31, 2011

Thanks for the info, CarlK!

Just to make sure, which part of the UID's tattoos specifies the 82nd Airborne? The photographs I posted were just examples I found online of other paratrooper tattoos which led me to start wondering about the paratrooper forum angle. If the UID's tattoos has a definite link, I am going to focus on the 82nd first!

CarlK90245 · Apr 1, 2011

tifflee said:
Thanks for the info, CarlK!

Just to make sure, which part of the UID's tattoos specifies the 82nd Airborne? The photographs I posted were just examples I found online of other paratrooper tattoos which led me to start wondering about the paratrooper forum angle. If the UID's tattoos has a definite link, I am going to focus on the 82nd first!

My mistake. :doh: I thought those were photos of the UID's tattoos.

tifflee · Apr 6, 2011

No problem, CarlK!

I emailed the administrators at paratrooper.net and armyparatrooper.org and didn't get a response so I will just have to find someone with a paratrooper connection. Maybe there is an 82nd Airborne Alumni Association of sorts I can start with.

webrocket · Oct 15, 2011

the UID is in Namus with no rule outs:

https://identifyus.org/cases/1254

here is an interesting MP, Raymond Lee Hunley, missing from IN on Dec 6, 1982. in his picture he is in a military uniform.

is the right height, 5'5", right age bracket (was 20 y.o.) had brown hair and brown eyes. no known tattoos as of Dec 1982. he was a bit lighter in weight than the UID Raymond being between 120-140 lbs.

face looks roundish like the UID but we can't see his hair since he is wearing a military cap.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hunley_raymond.html
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/5260/0/

tifflee · May 21, 2012

tifflee said:
I emailed the administrators at paratrooper.net and armyparatrooper.org and didn't get a response so I will just have to find someone with a paratrooper connection. Maybe there is an 82nd Airborne Alumni Association of sorts I can start with.

Just wanted to note that the forum administrators I reached out to in the paratrooper community never replied.

vermontaigne · Jan 7, 2013

The sketch artist has made this guy into MyLittlePonyTrooper.

Sleuthster · Jan 7, 2013

Does anyone remember a guy that was missing, I believe from NY state, and his car was found if I remember right in NC? It was around that time and he was in the service. I'll have to do some searching.

Sleuthster · Jan 7, 2013

I found it, David Loew. NY NY - David Michael Loew: USAF Sergeant, 22, Rome, 10 Dec 1984 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community He was missing in Dec 1984, after this doe was found. So it can't be him.

Sleuthster · Jan 7, 2013

I just found this. Red Beret is also a maroon beret and used in Canada. Maybe he's Canadian?
Maroon beret - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also found this when searching Canadian partrooper and pegasus

http://timothycoderre.tripod.com/default.htm

Edit- now this is interesting

"The maroon beret worn by the 10 Paratrooper Brigade is known as Pegasus. The conditions for wearing the maroon beret are to pass the basic parachute course and to successfully complete the adjustment course of the Maroon Beret."

This is in Malaysia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Paratrooper_Brigade_(Malaysia)

carbuff · Jan 7, 2013

Something I just noticed about the skull tattoo -- the U.S. is spelled with commas rather than periods. That's not a US or U.S. way of doing it. It might not say anything about his nationality, but it sounds like he might have had the tattoo done overseas.

tifflee · Jun 1, 2015

Good to see others have tried circulating this UID among online military forums: http://www.armyparatrooper.org/dropzone/showthread.php/33727-Paratrooper-missing-since-1980s.

Alleykins · Jun 26, 2016

It's been over a year since anyone posted on this. It breaks my heart that this may be one of our service men that has gone unidentified for so long. Has anyone contacted the Army directly about this to see if he were one of their paratroopers? One of the replies to Jenstar's query mentioned Pegasus was a symbol of the Air Cavalry. This UP has fingerprints available, there's a picture of him on NamUs. If he were military, they would have record of it some place.

Alleykins · Jun 26, 2016

I sent an email to the U.S. Army Office of the Provost Marshal General, asking them to help.
If this young man was one of our soldiers, he deserves his name back, to be reunited with his family and a proper burial.

Tulessa · Jun 26, 2016

My nephew is a ranger,and tattoo crazy, but I have no way of contacting him.

FL FL - Fort Lauderdale, WhtMale 1176UMFL, 21-30, 'US Paratrooper' tattoo, May'84

Active Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

UID Moderator

Active Member

UID Moderator

Active Member

New Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Verified - friend of Wendy Huggy

Verified - friend of Wendy Huggy

Verified - friend of Wendy Huggy

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

DNASolves

Online statistics

Forum statistics