Klute, Karl Edwin
Air Force Captain

Karl Edwin Klute, age 29, from Wayne County Richmond, Indiana .

Parents: Howard Klute
Spouse: Married

Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Richmond High (1954), School of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati (1959)

Date of death: Monday, March 14, 1966
Death details: Captain Karl Edwin Klute entered the U.S. Air Force from Indiana and served with the 90th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On March 14, 1966, he piloted a single-seat F-100D Super Sabre (tail number 55-3793) on a combat mission over South Vietnam. While making a strafing pass against enemy targets near Soc Trang, his aircraft crashed and exploded in the vicinity of GC XR 200 600. He was not observed to eject from his aircraft before it hit the ground. Enemy forces in the area precluded search efforts, and Capt Klute remains unaccounted-for. Today, Captain Klute 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, Palladium Item (1966), Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency