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Katherine Tatum Grossfeld-Family
to remember
Tatum, Lawrence Byron, Col.
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Col. Lawrence Byron Tatum served with the 1st Air Commando Squadron 14th Air Commando Squadron 7th Air Force.
He was a graduate of the United States Military Academy in 1953. Following his graduation, he received his Ph.D. at Syracuse University.
By 1962, he was a Captain in the U.S. Air Force and an instructor of Political Science at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
In 10 September 1966, then Major Tatum was serving with the 1st Air Commando Squadron in Pleiku, RVN and piloting an A-1E Skyraider (#52-132675, call sign "HOBO 27"). He was on a strafing mission just north of the Demilitarized Zone when his aircraft was struck by hostile fire.
The FAC of the mission saw him bail out and his descent was followed to the ground where he landed in a tree. People were seen in the area and shortly thereafter, he and his parachute disappeared. Intense ground fire prevented search and rescue. No mention of a second crewman is given in Air Force accounts of this incident.
He was listed as MIA and then declared dead Nov 10, 1976.
His remains were not recovered. He is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing, Court A, at the Honolulu Memorial, HI, in the US Air Force Academy Cemetery, Colorado Springs, CO, and in Maple Grove Cemetery, Russelville, KY.
