William Louis Madison, age 31, from Fayette County Lexington, Kentucky .
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Sunday, May 15, 1966
Death details: On November 24, 1999, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Chief Master Sergeant William Louis Madison, missing from the Vietnam War. Chief Master Sergeant Madison entered the U.S. Air Force from Kentucky and was a member of the 4th Air Commando Squadron. He served as a gunner on board an AC-47D Spooky (serial number 43-49546) on an armed reconnaissance mission departing from Da Nang Air Base in South Vietnam. While operating over Laos, the Spooky was shot down by enemy forces and CMSgt Madison was killed. Hostile presence in the area prevented immediate recovery efforts. In 1997, a joint investigative team recovered remains which were later identified as those of CMSgt Madison. Chief Master Sergeant Madison 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 (1999)