Foster, Paul Leonard
Air Force Senior master sergeant

Paul Leonard Foster from Knoxville, Tennessee, Knox county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Saturday, February 22, 1969
Death details: On October 18, 1995, Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Senior Master Sergeant Paul Leonard Foster, missing from the Vietnam War. Senior Master Sergeant Foster entered the U.S. Air Force from Tennessee and served with the 606th Air Commando Squadron. On February 22, 1969, he was the navigator aboard an A-26A Invader (tail number 64-17641, call sign “Nimrod 33”) on a night combat mission against enemy targets in Laos. During the mission, his aircraft was shot down by enemy ground fire and crashed in Khammouan Province, killing SMSgt Foster. A search was prevented by the rugged terrain and the active enemy presence in the loss area, and his remains were not recovered at the time. In 1996, a joint U.S./Laotian investigative team traveled to the crash site in Khammouan Province where they recovered human remains and personal effects, and in 2000, U.S. investigators were able to identify SMSgt Foster from these remains.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency