Polster, Harmon
Air Force Captain

Harmon Polster from Cleveland, Ohio, Cuyahoga county. Their last known residence was in Cleveland.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: July 15, 1969
Death details: On April 17, 2009, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Captain Harmon Polster, missing from the Vietnam War.

Captain Polster entered the U.S. Air Force from Ohio and was a member of the 389th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On July 15, 1969, he piloted an F-4D Phantom (tail number 66-7603, call sign “Cobra 61”) that took off from Phu Cat Air Base, South Vietnam, on a two-plane strike mission against enemy targets in Laos. As the Phantom made its pass on the target, it burst into flames for unknown reasons, skipped off a mountaintop, and crashed near Ban Lak Dan, Dakchung District, Attapu Province, Laos, killing Capt Polster. His remains could not be recovered at the time of his loss. Between 1993 and 2008, joint U.S./Laotian investigations located the crash site and recovered human remains and related material evidence; modern forensic techniques were eventually able to identify Capt Polster among the remains recovered.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency