McElhanon, Michael Owen
Air Force Colonel

Michael Owen McElhanon, age 34, from Fort Worth, Texas, Tarrant county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Friday, August 16, 1968

Death details: On August 16, 1968, an F-100F Super Sabre (tail number 56-3865) with two crew members took off from Phu Cat Airbase, South Vietnam, on a forward air controller mission over North Vietnam. The aircraft made radio contact when it was in the vicinity of (GC) 48Q XE 590 445, but was not heard from again. It failed to rendezvous with a tanker aircraft for a scheduled aerial refueling, and then failed to return to base, whereupon a search and rescue operation was launched. Search personnel failed to locate the aircraft or either of its crew members.

Major Michael Owen McElhanon, who entered the U.S. Air Force from Texas, served with the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing and was the pilot of this Super Sabre at the time of its loss. He remains unaccounted for. Following the incident, the Air Force promoted Maj McElhanon to the rank of Colonel (Col). Today, Colonel McElhanon is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com