Heggen, Keith Russell
Air Force Colonel
Keith Russell Heggen, age 41, from Renwick, Iowa, Humboldt county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, December 21, 1972
Death details: On April 22, 1974, the Central Identification Laboratory–Thailand (CILT, now DPAA) identified the remains of Colonel Keith Russell Heggen, missing from the Vietnam War.
Colonel Heggen entered the U.S. Air Force from Iowa and was a member of the 325th Bombardment Squadron. On December 21, 1972, he was an observer aboard a B-52G Stratofortress (tail number 58-0198, call sign “Olive 01”) that took off from Guam on a bombing mission over North Vietnam. During the flight, “Olive 01” was hit by an enemy surface-to-air missile that caused it to crash and explode in Ha Tay Province. Colonel Heggen did not survive the incident and an enemy presence in the area prevented the recovery of his remains at the time. In 1974, the Vietnamese government repatriated human remains that U.S. analysts identified as those of Col Heggen.
Cemetery: Remains recovered March 13, 1974
Source: National Archives, Military Times, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
