Pyles, Harley Boyd
Air Force Colonel

Harley Boyd Pyles from Enon, Ohio, Clark county. Their last known residence was in Enon.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: October 18, 1965
Death details: On April 2, 2001, Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Colonel Harley Boyd Pyles, missing from the Vietnam War.

Colonel Pyles entered the U.S. Air Force from Ohio and was a member of 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron. On October 18, 1965, he piloted an O-1G Bird Dog (tail number 2600, call sign “Birddog 55”) that took off on a direct air cover and strike mission over South Vietnam. After the mission was accomplished, bad weather over Quang Nam Province caused the aircraft to crash while heading toward Da Nang, and Col Pyles was killed in the incident. The active enemy presence prevented search efforts for Col Pyles’ aircraft and his remains were not recovered at the time of his loss. Between 1992 and 2000, joint U.S./Vietnamese teams recovered remains and artifacts from a crash site found in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam, and U.S. analysts eventually identified Col Pyles from these remains.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency