BOWER, IRVIN LESTER JR.
Remains Returned 11/20/00
Name: Irvin Lester Bower Jr.
Branch/Rank: United States Marine Corps/E3
Unit: O/3/5 1 MAR DIV
Date of Birth: 24 April 1949
Home City of Record: LINGLESTOWN PA
Date of Loss: 06 October 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 155125 North 1081141 East
Status (in 1973): Killed in Action/Body not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno: 1497
Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined Action
Combat Casualty File. 2020
REMARKS: Drowned when being extracted from a tower post on Song Thu Bon
River
CACCF/NON-HOSTILE/DIED OF OTHER CAUSES DROWNED/SUFFOCATED QUANG NAM
No further information available at this time.
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01/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000vjG3aEAE
On April 2, 2001, Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now
DPAA) identified the remains of Lance Corporal Irvin Lester
Bower Jr., missing from the Vietnam War.
Lance Corporal Bower entered the U.S. Marine Corps from
Pennsylvania and was a member of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th
Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. On October 6, 1969, he
drowned in the Ky Lam River, South Vietnam, after falling from a
helicopter during his extraction from a bridge watchtower.
Searches failed to locate his body, and his remains were not
recovered at the time of his loss. In 2000, a set of human
remains were recovered from a grave located along a tributary of
the Ky Lam River, and U.S. analysts identified LCpl Bower from
these remains.
Lance Corporal Bower is memorialized on the Courts of the
Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.