Murray, Joseph Vaughn
Navy Lieutenant (junior grade)

Joseph Vaughn Murray, age 24, from Livingston County Chillicothe, Missouri .

Spouse: Virginia Ann Murray

Service era: Vietnam
Schools: University of Missouri graduate

Date of death: Friday, February 18, 1966
Death details: On February 18, 1966, an A-6A Intruder (bureau number 151797) carrying two crew members took off from the USS Kitty Hawk (CVA 63) as part of a three-plane armed reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam. After making a bombing run, the Intruder crashed for unknown reasons and just beyond the target area. Witnesses in other aircraft observed no parachutes emerge from the Intruder before it went down, and an aerial sweep saw no signs of survivors at the crash site. The active enemy presence in the area prevented ground searches, and the Intruder’s two crew members were not found at the time nor their remains recovered following the incident. Lieutenant Junior Grade Joseph Vaughn Murray, who joined the U.S. Navy from Missouri, was a member of Attack Squadron 85 embarked aboard the USS Kitty Hawk (CVA 63). He was the pilot of the Intruder when it went down on February 18, 1966, and was not seen or heard from again following the incident. Today, Lieutenant Junior Grade Murray is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Associated Press (1966)