Lauterio, Manuel Alonzo
Army Staff sergeant

Manuel Alonzo Lauterio, age 25, from Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Monday, January 8, 1973
Death details: On October 5, 1999, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Staff Sergeant Manuel Alonzo Lauterio, missing from the Vietnam War. Staff Sergeant Lauterio joined the U.S. Army from California and was a member of the 62nd Aviation Company. On January 8, 1973, he was the crew chief aboard a UH-1H Iroquois (tail number 69-15619) on a support mission over Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. The Iroquois was shot down during the mission, and SSG Lauterio was killed in the incident. Enemy presence in the area prevented ground search and rescue efforts for the helicopter and its crew. In 1996, a joint U.S. and Vietnamese investigative team recovered remains from a site associated with SSG Lauterio’s loss. In 1999, forensic analysis identified some of the recovered remains as those of SSG Lauterio.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency