MICHAEL STEPHEN WALKER
.
.
CAPT - Air Force - Regular
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 389th Tactical Fighter
Squadron
32 year old Married, Caucasian,
Male
Date of Birth: Aug 29, 1941
Home City of Record: COLUMBIA,
LOUISIANA
His tour of duty began on Jul
15, 1969
Casualty was on Oct 05, 1973
Date of Loss: 15 July 1969
Country of Loss: LAOS
Loss Coordinates: 152250N 1072100E
(YC633018)
Hostile, died while missing
FIXED WING - CREW
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4D
Status (in 1973): Missing in
Action
Body was not recovered
Refno: 1467
Religion
BAPTIST
Panel 20W - - Line 4
Other Personnel in Incident:
Harmon Polster (missing)
Category: 3
Source: Compiled
by Homecoming II Project 01 September 1990 from one or more
of the following: raw data from
U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews.
Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK
1998.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS:
The Phantom, used by Air Force, Marine and Navy air wings, served
a multitude of functions including
fighter-bomber and interceptor, photo and
electronic surveillance. The
two man aircraft was extremely fast (Mach 2),
and had a long range (900 -
2300 miles, depending on stores and mission
type). The F4 was also extremely
maneuverable and handled well at low and
high altitudes. Most pilots
considered it one of the "hottest" planes
around.
1Lt. Harmon Polster was a pilot
and Capt. Michael S. Walker the
bombardier/navigator of an F4E
attached to the 389th Tactical Fighter
Squadron at Phu Cat Airbase
in South Vietnam. On July 15, 1969, the two were
assigned a night operational
mission which took them over Chavane Province,
Laos.
When the aircraft was about 15
miles northeast of the city of Chavane,
Polster failed to make contact
with his wingman after making the first pass
over the target. A fire on the
ground was observed and presumed to be
Polster's aircraft. No voice
contact was received and no parachutes had been
seen. There was the chance the
two ejected unseen, and they were classified
Missing in Action.
Nearly 600 Americans were lost
in Laos during the Vietnam war. Although the
numbers actually termed "prisoner
of war" are quite low, this can be
explained by the blanket of
security surrounding the "secret war" the U.S.
waged in Laos. To protect the
ruse that we "were not in Laos," details of
many loss incidents were "rearranged"
to show a loss or casualty in South
Vietnam. Only a handful of publicly-exposed
cases were ever acknowledged
POW, even though scores of pilots
and ground personnel were known to have
been alive and well at last
contact, thus increasing the chance they were
captured alive.
The Lao communist faction, the
Pathet Lao, stated on several occasions that
they held "tens of tens" of
American prisoners, but the Pathet Lao were not
included in the Paris Peace
agreements ending American involvement in the
war. As a consequence, no American
POWs held in Laos were negotiated for.
Not one American held in Laos
has ever been released. They were abandoned to
the enemy.
Reports continue to be received
that Americans are alive today, being held
captive. Whether Walker and
Polster are among them is not known. What is
certain, however, is that they
deserve than the abandonment they received by
the country they proudly served.
Harmon Polster was promoted to
the rank of Captain during the period he was
maintained missing.
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