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Toon/Tomb's name arose during the latter part of the war, being known to U.S. Navy (if not Air Force ) aviators. Photos of North Vietnamese MiG-17s and MiG-21s bearing numerous red victory stars occasionally were identified as his aircraft, but the most basic aspects of Toon/Tomb's life and career were never published. Nor was his photo ever released. Apart from those mysterious facts, ethnologists have noted that neither Toon nor Tomb is a Vietnamese name. (One U.S. Air Force Sergeant said, "I'm the only Tomb I know, and I'm Irish !")

It is more likely that something similar to Toon or Tomb was a Radio Callsign , and a corrupted version of the story got out. Much of the information the U.S. obtained about the North Vietnamese air force came from " SigInt " or signals intelligence, monitoring enemy radio transmissions.

In the years after the war, American military officers visiting Vietnam have intimated that some of their hosts admitted that Toon/Tomb was a long-standing, successful fabrication.