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Lt Col Joseph C. Austin was an F-105 pilot assigned a mission over North Vietnam on March 19, 1967. Departing from his base (probably in Thailand), Austin proceeded to his mission area. When Austin's aircraft was just east of the Ban Karai Pass, it was hit by enemy fire and crashed. The Ban Karai Pass is one of several passageways through the mountainous border of Vietnam and Laos. American aircraft flying from Thailand to missions over North Vietnam flew through them regularly, and many aircraft were lost.
On the Laos side of the border coursed the "Ho Chi Minh Trail", a road heavily traveled by North Vietnamese troops moving materiel and personnel to their destinations through the relative safety of neutral Laos. The return ratio of men lost in and around the passes is far lower than that of those men lost in more populous areas, even though both were shot down by the same enemy and the same weapons. This is partly due to the extremely rugged terrain and resulting difficulty in recovery. It was not known if Austin safely ejected from his aircraft, but not thought likely that he survived.
However, because the opportunity existed for him to eject safely, Austin was declared Missing in Action rather than presumed dead. When 591 Americans were released in Operation Homecoming in 1973, Austin was not among them. The Vietnamese denied any knowledge of him, although it was their guns that downed him and it is unlikely that the crashing aircraft escaped their attention. The U.S. believes the Vietnamese can account for Austin, alive or dead. Since American involvement in Vietnam ended in 1975, over 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing, prisoner, or otherwise unaccounted for in Indochina have been received by the U.S. Government. Many officials, having examined this largely classified information, have reluctantly concluded that many Americans are still alive today, held captive by our long-ago enemy. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel during the period he was maintained missing. His remains have never been found.
This Veteran has an (IMO) In Memory Of Headstone in Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii.
