Chicago

Jack Elmer Keller, age 36, from Chicago, Illinois, Cook county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: April 21, 1966
Death details:  On April 21, 1966, an A-6A Intruder (bureau number 151798) with two crew members took part in a two-plane night attack mission against an enemy supply and barracks area on the coast of North Vietnam. During the mission, the wingman observed a bright flash from the direction of this Intruder. The wingman then lost contact with this aircraft and it disappeared from friendly radar tracking. A surface-to-air missile (SAM) warning had been sounded earlier, but the wingman had no basis to believe a SAM had been launched. Search and rescue efforts were unable to locate this Intruder or either of its crew members.

Lieutenant Commander Jack Elmer Keller, who entered the U.S. Navy from Illinois, served with Attack Squadron 85. He was the pilot of this Intruder at the time of its loss on April 21, 1966, and he remains unaccounted-for. While carried in the status of missing in action (MIA), the U.S. Navy promoted LCDR Keller to the rank of Captain (CAPT). Today, CAPT Keller is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Cemetery: Memorialized at Jonesboro, Illinois

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com