Astoria New York

Leonardo Capistran Leonor from Astoria, New York,

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: October 10, 1972
Death details: On November 26, 2001, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Major Leonardo Capistrano Leonor, missing from the Vietnam War.

Major Leonor, who joined the U.S. Air Force from New York, served with 523rd Tactical Fighter Squadron. On October 10, 1972, he was the navigator aboard an F-4E Phantom II (serial number 67-254) on a forward air control mission directing strikes against enemy coastal artillery in Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. Shortly after the Phantom completed a routine air-to-air refueling, radio contact was lost with its crew. At some point after contact was lost, the Phantom crashed and Maj Leonor was killed, though the exact circumstances of his loss remain unknown. A search and rescue mission was initiated but was unable to recover his body at the time. In 1994, a joint U.S./Vietnamese investigative team located the crash site of the Phantom and recovered remains which were later identified as those of Maj Leonor.

Major Leonor is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency