Joe Palmer Pederson from Seaside, California, Monterey county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, June 23, 1970
Death details: On June 23, 1970, three service members of the 595th Signal Company were riding in a truck that departed the Lai Khe Signal site on an administrative mission to the Phuoc Vinh Signal site in South Vietnam. The mission followed the new Phouc Vinh road because another used route was reportedly mined. The truck was later discovered abandoned in a ditch with a running motor, blown tire, and a shattered windshield. On the following day, a more thorough inspection found that the vehicle had several small-caliber bullet holes in it, but no bloodstains were visible. Searches failed to locate the three missing men.
Sergeant First Class Joe Palmer Pederson entered the U.S. Army from California and was the supply sergeant of the 595th Signal Company, 36th Signal Battalion, 2nd Signal Group, 1st Signal Brigade. He was one of the three men traveling in this truck when it was ambushed and went missing in the incident. His remains were not recovered. After the incident, the U.S. Army posthumously promoted SFC Pederson to the rank of Master Sergeant (MSG). Today, Master Sergeant Pederson is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Cemetery: Memorialized at Zachary Taylor National
Source: National Archives, grave marker, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
