Lautzenheiser, Michael
Army Specialist 5
Michael Lautzenheiser from Muncie, Indiana, Delaware county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, October 26, 1971
Death details: On October 26, 1971, a CH-47 Chinook (tail number 66-19143, call sign “Warrior 143”) with five crew members and five passengers aboard left Tuy Hoa, South Vietnam, on a supply mission to Cam Rahn Bay, South Vietnam. The helicopter encountered inclement weather and lost radio communication before it crashed into the water off the coast of Nha Trang. Search and rescue missions recovered four bodies and retreived debris that washed ashore on Hon Tre Island. The other six men aboard the helicopter remain missing. Specialist 5 Michael Lautzenheiser, who joined the U.S. Army from Indiana, served with the 68th Aviation Company, 52nd Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group. He was the flight engineer aboard the Chinook when it crashed on October 26, 1971, and his remains were not recovered. Today, Specialist 5 Lautzenheiser is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
