Pitzen, John Russell
Navy Captain

John Russell Pitzen from Stacyville, Iowa, Mitchell county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: August 17, 1972
Death details: On February 20, 1996, Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JTF-FA) identified the remains of Commander John Russell Pitzen, missing from the Vietnam War.
Commander Pitzen entered the U.S. Navy from Iowa and was a member of Fighter Squadron 114, Carrier Air Wing 11. On August 17, 1972, he piloted an F-4J Phantom II (bureau number 157262, call sign “Linfield 211”) that took off from the USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) to escort attack aircraft on a night strike mission against an enemy target in North Vietnam. During the mission, his aircraft was struck by an enemy surface-to-air missile that caused it to crash near Haiphong, killing CDR Pitzen. His remains could not be recovered at the time. In 1991, U.S. investigators received human remains from a refugee source that correlated with a crash site near Yen Duc Village; between 1992 and 1996, a joint investigation team traveled to the crash site where excavations recovered artifacts and additional human remains, and in 1996, they were able to identify CDR Pitzen from these remains.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency