Paying Tribute on Memorial Day

At the Needham Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday, May 25, 2026, Patrick Dunn '28 gave a wonderful speech in honor of those who have bravely served our country, especially our fallen heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend freedom. Dunn honored his grandparents, Joe and Maureen Dunn, a Navy pilot lost in Vietnam and a tireless POW/MIA advocate. Assistant Head of School Michael Nerbonne was also in attendance.

Dunn's Memorial Day speech can be read below:

Good morning, and happy Memorial Day. I'm going to bet that some of you are wondering why I’m here, and others are wondering why I was invited back. For the first thing, I have an important someone’s story to tell. For the second thing, I have no clue, but that’s not important now. The important person I’m here to tell you about is my grandfather, Commander Joseph P. Dunn, who served the U.S. Navy. He grew up in Dorchester and moved over to Hull when he was 14. I’ve heard tales about what a crazy person he was, from test riding roller coasters and fighting someone for looking at him the wrong way. That was until a 6’4 giant named Eddie Slavin kept him on track. He ended up becoming a close friend of Joe’s and kept him out of most fights, and made it possible for him to eventually be in the military.
  
He grew up by the water, leading him to a naval station in Weymouth. He somehow started to work on X-ray machines, even with his not-so-outstanding background in them. His reason for going into the military in the first place was that he was the only short person in a tall family and wanted to prove something to his oafs of brothers. His goal was eventually to become an astronaut, but the first step in that was to become a pilot. His pilot training was in Pensacola, Florida, with some adventures in Texas. He got his wings in 1964, and he went right over to the USS Coral Sea, an aircraft carrier. He had one deployment on the USS Coral Sea before he was able to go home to his family. This was short-lived; then the Vietnam War started, and it was all hands on deck. So he had his second deployment and went on many missions in his Prop plane.
 
I don't have too many specifics on his missions other than his return from one specific mission. He had to fly back to a Philippine Naval station to get his plane repaired. On his flight back, there was a deadly storm. Rain was falling all around while his plane was breaking through the clouds every second. He and his navigator got separated, but they didn't know it until they were out of the storm. When Joe got out of the storm, he was flying over Chinese waters. The relationship between China and the US wasn't great at the time, thus leading him to be shot down by the Chinese military shortly after the storm broke. At this time, his navigator returned to the USS Coral Sea. The commanding officer of the ship asked where the Navigator thought Joe would have been downed. The Navigator told him where Joe should’ve been, but this was obviously wrong because of the storm. Joe was ejected from his plane at the moment of the firing from the Chinese and turned on his beeper eight hours later. When The Coral Sea figured out where Joe was, they didn’t know if they should go in to save him. There was fear of World War starting, so the commanding officer called the Secretary of Defense to ask to go in. The Secretary of Defense called President Lyndon Jhonson. Jhonson said not to go in. They had to leave my grandfather out there on presidential orders. The assumption was that he would die out there, and they were right.

There are a few good or at least good-intended stories to come out of my grandfather's death. Someone from the USS Coral Sea, Mark Morrikon, took another prop plane to drop leaflets over land in Chinese, Vietnamese, and English, searching for him. This didn’t work, but this just shows the devotion of those in the military for one another, as you all know. Joe’s Wife, my grandmother, Maureen Dunn, was also one of the national leaders of the start of the POW MIA families movement to help those families get information about missing family members and give support.
  
I was sadly never able to meet my grandfather, and while I am so sad that I never got to meet him, I never had to lose him in the first place. So many of you have lost someone, whether it be a spouse, fellow soldier, friend, or family member, and that feeling of loss might never go away. But we have to live for those lost. My grandfather never got to be an astronaut, but I can always look to the stars and be closer to him. We all have that connection to the person lost. That person may be gone, but we have to keep going in their name. It's a good thing to feel the loss of that person because that shows they meant so much to you, but we have to keep going for that person. So on this Memorial Day, we remember those lost and express gratitude for their service, and we honor those who serve our nation. 

Thank you for listening, and God Bless.