HUDDLESTON, LYNN RAGLE

Name: Lynn Ragle Huddleston
Rank/Branch: O2/US Army
Unit: 74th Aviation Company, 145th Aviation Battalion
Date of Birth: 21 December 1941 (La Mesa TX)
Home City of Record: Ralls TX
Loss Date: 26 September 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 113115N 1062952E (XT633739)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: O1D (pilot)
Refno: 0841
Other Personnel In Incident: Stephen J. Geist (missing)

Source: Compiled 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 in 2020.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: At 0910 hours on September 26, 1967, 1Lt. Lynn R. Huddleston was
the pilot of an O1D reconnaissance aircraft on which Geist was the observer.
Huddleston was from the 74th Aviation Company "Aloft", a recon aircraft
company from the 145th Aviation Battalion. Geist was from Detachment A-332,
5th Special Forces Group. The aircraft left on a visual reconnaissance
mission of the Minh Than area.

A radio call was received by Detachment A-332 at 0930 hours from Lt.
Huddleston. No coordinates were given. Again at 1030 hours, a call from Lt.
Huddleston was monitored by Hon Quan Radar, and Huddleston gave his position
as the vicinity of grid coordinates XT633739, or a few miles from the border
of Cambodia just north of Minh Thanh. This was the last radio communication
with the personnel aboard the O1D. The plane never reached its destination.
Search and rescue was initiated at 1310 hours, but was terminated 3 days
later without any sightings of either the aircraft or its crew. There has
been no word of the two since.

Reports continue to mount that Americans are held prisoner in Southeast
Asia. Nearly 2500 Americans remain missing. Until serious effort is made to
find them, their families will wonder whether their men are alive or dead.

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01/2020

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000001UjzEAE

CPT LYNN RAGLE HUDDLESTON

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On September 26, 1967, an O-1D Bird Dog (tail number 55-4692, call sign "Aloft 13") carrying a pilot and passenger took off from Minh Thanh, South Vietnam, on a visual reconnaissance mission of the surrounding area. The final radio transmission from the aircraft reported its position as west of Minh Thanh, and it failed to return to base. Search and rescue efforts could not locate the missing aircraft or the two men aboard.

First Lieutenant Lynn Ragle Huddleston entered the U.S. Army from Texas and was a member of 74th Reconnaissance Airplane Company. He was the pilot of this O-1 and was lost with the aircraft. After the incident, the U.S. Army promoted First Lieutenant Huddleston to the rank of Captain. Today, Captain Huddleston is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual's case to be in the analytical category of Active Pursuit.

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