Martin, Russell Dean
Air Force Lieutenant colonel

Russell Dean Martin from Bloomfield, Iowa, Davis county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: June 3, 1966
Death details: On April 22, 2003, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Lieutenant Colonel Russell Dean Martin, missing from the Vietnam War.

Lieutenant Colonel Martin, who entered the U.S. Air Force from Iowa, was a member of the 4th Air Commando Squadron. On June 3, 1966, he was the co-pilot of an AC-47D Spooky on an armed reconnaissance mission departing from Ubon Airfield in Thailand. During the mission, the aircraft was shot down over southern Laos and Lt Col Martin was killed. In 1995, a joint U.S./Laotian investigative team located the crash site of the Spooky and recovered remains which were later identified as those of Lt Col Martin.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency