What do you guys think happened to 1st Lt. Whipkey and Pvt. Burgwinkel?

Mystery surrounds the 1958 disappearance of First Lt. Paul Whipkey and 1993 disappearance of Private Justin Burgwinkel.

26 year old Paul Whipkey seems to have disappeared from Fort Ord on July 10, 1958 after telling people at the base he was going out to get drinks. He under some circumstance made his way out to a motel in Mojave, CA where the next day he bought 14 gallons of gas.

Paul's brother Carl claims he became suspicious when he called the base on July 12 only to find out that the army had already packed up all of Paul's belongings to ship them back to the family.

Five weeks later, Paul's car was found abandoned 150 miles from Mojave. His personal belongings including suitcase and dog tags were found in the vehicle. At this point, Army officials postulated that he had walked into the desert and succumbed to the heat or dehydration, but a pile of cigarette butts was found next to the car and Paul didn't smoke.

Much of the conspiracy angle surrounding this case comes from the brother, he has made assertions that Paul was involved in nuclear test missions as a pilot and may have been privy to unethical experiments done by the military/government regarding radiation. The Army, for it's part acknowledges that he was a pilot at Camp Desert Rock from July to October 1957 but basically denies that he was involved in anything nuclear related. But of course the Army also seems to confirm Carl Whipkey's account of his brother's medical problems such as sudden skin problems, weight loss and the fact that just several months before he disappeared he had all of his teeth pulled and got dentures.

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Lewis recalled in a 1982 hearing regarding Whipkey's case that some time before the disappearance, he had seen army intelligence agents interviewing Whipkey at Camp Desert Rock and that following this talk, Whipkey was very nervous to the point he was unable to fly in some observational missions.


unsolved.com...

In hindsight, Lewis now believes that Paul may have met with the two men for one simple reason:

“During that era, there was a tremendous amount of nationwide recruiting conducted by the CIA. And with Lt. Whipkey’s qualifications, he would’ve been an exceptional candidate for such an assignment.”

Paul’s brother, Carl, thinks there may be some truth to this as well:

“January of the year he disappeared, he told me during a telephone conversation that he was going to be going on an assignment, that he was going to make a name for himself. Before he could tell me what it was, he was interrupted by some officers moving in the proximity of his desk and he could no longer talk to me about the subject. I theorize that Paul was recruited into an Army/CIA joint program that was going on at that time. When Paul left Fort Ord, he drove to the town of Mojave, California and checked into White’s Motel. There’s a possibility that he was met there by Army intelligence agents or the CIA and transported to Southeast Asia, possibly from Edwards Air Force Base, which is nearby.”

In 1982 the Army Board for Correction of Military Records held hearings and came to the conclusion somehow that Whipkey died the day after he disappeared and that his "unauthorized absence was unavoidable" and that his death was incurred in the line of duty and not due to his own misconduct.

I have so many questions about how the Army came to the conclusion after so many years and so much squeaky wheeling by the brother that he died in the line of duty the day after he disappeared.

He had told people he was going on assignment prior to this, was it a mission gone wrong? Cover up by the military? Was First Lt. Whipkey a loose end the Army had to tie up? Or was he assigned a whole new identity for some intelligence purpose not divulged by the military and alive and well (maybe not after this long, but ya never know. Could have lived to old age under a different identity for some unknown reason courtesy of Uncle Sam) OR did he just feel like going for a walk in Death Valley in July, presumably with no water or supplies and succumb to the elements?

This case is exceedingly similar to the case of Justin Burgwinkel who disappeared from Fort Lewis. He had previously been stationed at Fort Ord, like Whipkey but the similarities don't end there.

unsolved.com...

Justin was stationed at Fort Ord for 3 years and during that time met a girlfriend living in Santa Clara. He frequently made the trip from Monterey to visit her and she noticed it seemed like he had secrets about what he was really doing. At one point after his move to Ft. Lewis during one of his visits she received a phone call while he was out. The mystery caller asked her to tell him the mission was off, but when she asked who he was involved with he told her she didn't want to know. After this visit he bought two handguns and over 100 rounds of ammo.

Following this, Burgwinkel did not return to Ft. Lewis and was reported AWOL. His parents talked to him during this time and convinced him to call the base so he did that and said he would be returning, but he never did. He is listed as missing since June 12, 1993.

No sign of Justin was found until his car was spotted at a motel near Fort Ord three months later. Inside the trunk were personal belongings including his wallet and dog tags. His girlfriend says he told her that if you ever see these dog tags separated from me it means I'm dead. Now you can take that many ways and I dont even know how true that really is because I tried researching it and can find no information at all about what the significance is of dog tags left behind so I don't know about this one.

The abandoned car/dog tags/motel/talk about some kind of mission and connections to Fort Ord are what make these cases similar to me.

Excellent OP!

I have never heard of these 2 until just now. TY for something new to look into.

I also apologize if I get a bit wordy, you have hit on something I have contemplated for years.

Before I get to that:

1. This to me sounds like a black op gone wrong, because of your dog tag question.

2. If you are on an operation like that, you take nothing with you, including dog tags. You pack up your belongings.

The car being found after months, with all those belongings and dog tags, seems like a way to acknowledge the death to loved ones, without admission of circumstances.

I will explain why I think this shortly. And I am even going to tie in some big conspiracies.

Again, really loved this, ty.

a reply to: Shoshanna

They died of acute nominal rediculitis?

a reply to: theatreboy

I lean toward op gone wrong too just because of how strange Burgwinkel was acting. When his girlfriend questioned him he told her to watch the movie White Sands. White Sands is about gun running well it is kind of cheesy but pretty much the main character is a cop who finds a body in the desert and it ends up being either an FBI agent undercover or Army and the cop ends up impersonating the dead guy for the FBI because he was involved in an undercover investigation of gun runners.

But I have also thought being stationed at Fort Ord maybe he had heard about 1st Lt. Whipkey’s disappearance and kind of staged his to be a similar mystery.

Whipkey’s brother was relentless in getting what he thinks is the truth out, I just wish there was more information available about what led the Army to finally say that he died in the line of duty.

I am really interested in what missions these men might have been on, given their close proximity to one another. Also when researching Fort Ord, it seems that in 1957 the Eisenhower administration created the first Combat Development Experimentation Center at Fort Ord. The timing of this with Whipkey’s disappearance is interesting to me. I am still looking into this because the information about what this actually is and what they do is pretty vague. What they do now is also probably not what they were doing back in the 50s.

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: Shoshanna

They died of acute nominal rediculitis?

What the hell is that?

originally posted by: Shoshanna

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: Shoshanna

They died of acute nominal rediculitis?

What the hell is that?

Silly names.

a reply to: Shoshanna

Interesting comment here that the Army, in 1982, stated 1LT Whipkey had been killed in action.

IMO, KIA implies one of the unacknowledged losses that took place in the instances the Cold War went hot.

And this mentions Burgwinkel may have been involved in arms smuggling ... something that could have been part of official duties or a sideline he thought might be profitable.

Cheers

If 1st Lt. Whipkey's name was instead, Rocket J. Squirrel, then I would have believed this whole story.

Seriously though, trying to make sense of anything happening in that part of the country, at that time and involving the Military... is just not going to happen.

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

Ok now you have gotten into something I have wondered about because variously he is reported as killed in action or died in the line of duty, to me those are similar but different. But I'm not a military person so I don't know. The conclusion of the Army Board for Correction of Military records after their 3 day hearing in 1982 was that his death was "incurred in the line of duty" and we still don't know where his body is! If they knew he died the day after he disappeared as they are saying where is the body? Was it a matter of national security at that time? I mean i think the hearings and their secret nature and no explanation raise more questions than they answer.

When they found his car they theorized that he had just walked into the desert and died from the elements. Do you think that could be construed as "dying in the line of duty" if the alternative is him being listed as AWOL or deserter? But then that assumption raises even more questions because we have to ask ourselves why? Why did he go out to Mojave, stay the night at White’s motel then gas up his car the next day only to abandon it 150 miles away from Mojave and walk into the desert?

Same with Burgwinkel. His car was found right near Ft. Ord, yet he was stationed at Ft. Lewis and his girlfriend lived in Monterey. Why did he go down to Ft. Ord?

a reply to: Shoshanna

"Line of duty" implies he was "at work" when he died. KIA is different, it means that person was engaged in combat against enemies of the United States at the time of their death.

Re Whipkey, what is hard to understand is how he could have been KIA on U.S. territory in the 1950s, when no wars were being fought on U.S. soil.

The Wiki article mentions he was a pilot but his unit is not mentioned. I wonder if it was a special ops outfit. This ties into the other fellow. The article mentions he intended to become a ranger, but is not clear if he actually did (there is/was a ranger battalion at Fort Lewis.) Rangers fight battles that the public never hears about. What the public rarely grasps is that "peace time" is nothing of the sort. It is simply a time in which war is not declared, but in which deadly struggles take place regularly. Or, he somehow got involved in arms trafficking and a deal went very sour.

Cheers

a reply to: Shoshanna

When they found his car they theorized that he had just walked into the desert and died from the elements. Do you think that could be construed as "dying in the line of duty" if the alternative is him being listed as AWOL or deserter? But then that assumption raises even more questions because we have to ask ourselves why? Why did he go out to Mojave, stay the night at White’s motel then gas up his car the next day only to abandon it 150 miles away from Mojave and walk into the desert?

Leaving the tags behind does send a message that he knows what he is getting into, his old life will be over after this. A black op sanctioned by the military is how it all reads. Not surprised the smoking man was there to watch.

So what kind of operation will start in such a secluded place? Something like 'Close Encounters' or project Serpo? Maybe they will return one day, maybe they wont? It is case closed for the public. As for how the mission went?