Augusto Maria Xavier, age 24, from San Jose, California, Santa Clara county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Thursday, March 10, 1966
Death details: First Lieutenant Augusto Maria Xavier entered the U.S. Marine Corps from California and served in Marine Attack Squadron 311, Marine Air Group 12, 1st Marine Air Wing. On March 10, 1966, he was piloting a single-seat A-4C Skyhawk (bureau number 148518) as one of two aircraft on a close air support mission over a special forces camp in the A Shau Valley, which was under attack and in danger of being overrun. The target area was obscured by heavy cloud cover, and 1stLt Xavier descended below the clouds for an attack run when the other pilot on the mission saw a bright orange flash through the clouds. There was no further contact with 1stLt Xavier, and he was not seen again. Search and rescue efforts failed to locate a crash site, and subsequent attempts to locate 1stLt Xavier or his remains were unsuccessful. Today, First Lieutenant Xavier is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency