Lt. Gen. Eugene F. Tighe Jr.; Held Top Intelligence Posts

SAN DIEGO —  Air Force Lt. Gen. Eugene F. Tighe Jr., a former director of the super-secret Defense Intelligence Agency, has died. He was 72.

Tighe died Jan. 29 of prostate cancer, said Gwen Tighe, his wife of 43 years.

President Jimmy Carter named Tighe to the DIA post in 1978, where he served until 1981. He had been acting director for two years before, and in his 39-year military career, he held the senior intelligence positions at the headquarters of the Air Force, Strategic Air Command, and Pacific Command.

Tighe was perhaps best known to the public for his work on the question of American prisoners of war in Vietnam.

In 1986, he headed a Pentagon panel that concluded that U.S. prisoners of war were still alive in Southeast Asia, the first time in years that a Defense Department investigation found that Vietnam might be holding U.S. troops. The report prompted dissent from many in the military who believed that Tighe was too zealous on the subject.

In recent years, his wife said, the general began to doubt that any POWs were still alive and being held against their will. “He didn’t know if they could survive that long in captivity,” she said.

At his death, Tighe was a member of the board of regents for his alma mater, Loyola Marymount University, and a board member of the Chicago-based gambling conglomerate, Bally Manufacturing.

He is survived by his wife, three sons, three grandchildren and six sisters.