Balamoti, Michael Dimitri
Air Force Major

Michael Dimitri Balamoti from Glen Falls, New York, Saratoga county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: November 24, 1969
Death details: On October 2, 1995, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Major Michael Dimitri Balamoti, missing from the Vietnam War.

Major Balamoti joined the U.S. Air Force from New York and was a member of the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron. On November 24, 1969, he was the navigator aboard a C-130A Hercules on a forward air controller/illumination mission over Laos. While operating near Ban Salou, the Hercules was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire, and Maj Balamoti was killed in the crash. Immediate search and rescue efforts were prevented by heavy enemy presence in the area, and a friendly aircraft that later passed over the crash site saw no signs of survivors. In 1993, a joint U.S. and Laotian search team recovered remains from a crash site associated with Maj Balamoti ‘s C-130A. In 1995, forensic analysis identified some of the recovered remains as those of Maj Balamoti.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency