Muskogee Oklahoma

Chambers, Jerry Lee
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel

Jerry Lee Chambers, age 35, from Muskogee, Oklahoma, Muskogee county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Wednesday, May 22, 1968
Death details: On March 13, 2009, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Lee Chambers, missing from the Vietnam War. Lieutenant Colonel Chambers joined the U.S. Air Force from Oklahoma and was a member of the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron. On May 22, 1968, he was the observer aboard a C-130 Hercules (serial number unknown), and one of nine crew members, on a nighttime flare mission over northern Salavan Province, Laos. The Hercules crashed during its flight, killing all nine members of the crew. Immediate search efforts were not conducted due to heavy anti-aircraft fire in the area. Between 1989 and 2008, joint Laotian, Vietnamese, and American search teams conducted field investigations and excavations in the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam, recovering aircraft wreckage and human remains. In 2009, modern forensic techniques individually identified the remains of the crew of the Hercules, including those of Lt Col Chambers.
Cemetery: Arlington National

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

Thompson, William D.
Army 2nd lieutenant

William D. Thompson from Muskogee County Muskogee, Oklahoma .

Parents: W. C. Thompson

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, July 5, 1942
Death details: On July 5, 1942, a C-53B Skytrooper (serial number 41-20048) took off from Elmendorf Army Air Force Base, Alaska, on a transport mission to Seattle, Washington, carrying four crew members and twelve passengers. Approximately twenty-five miles northeast of Fort Randall, Cold Bay, Alaska, the aircraft crashed into a mountain on Kodiak Island in the Seward Peninsula off of northwest Alaska. All sixteen men on board died in the crash, but only the remains of six were recovered. The other ten occupants remain unaccounted for. Second Lieutenant William D. Thompson, who joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from Oklahoma, was a member of the 54th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group. He was a passenger aboard this Skytrooper when it crashed during its transport mission to Seattle. His remains were not recovered following the crash. Today, Second Lieutenant Thompson is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Kyser, D. T.
Navy Seaman 2nd class

D. T. Kyser, age 18, from Muskogee County Muskogee, Oklahoma .

Parents: H. Kyser

Service era: World War II
Schools: Central High

Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Died aboard the USS Oklahoma, Accounted for August 9, 2019.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Muskogee Daily Phonix and Times Democrat (1942)

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