MASTERSON, MICHAEL J.

Name: Michael John "Bat" Masterson
Rank/Branch: Ltc. O3/USAF
Unit: Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Base
Date of Birth: 16 May 1937
Home City of Record:  Ephrata, WA   (Family in California)
Loss Date: 13 October 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 192900N 1032000E
Status (in 1973)  Missing In Action/Prisoner of War
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground:   A1G
Refno: 1303

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 1998.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS:  "Bat" Masterson was flying a night mission near Ban Ban, Laos on
October 13, 1968, when his A16 prop air- plane developed gyro indicator
trouble and he developed vertigo.  Masterson radioed another aircraft that
he was bailing out in the vicinity of a Pathet Lao headquarters and nothing
has been heard from him since.

The Defense Department maintained Masterson as Prisoner of War, while the
Air Force listed him as Missing In Action. His wife is following his
directive, "If I become a POW, I'll just wait for my government to come and
get me.  But if I become an MIA, I want you to find out what happened to
me." Her search has led her to Laos and many times to Wash- ington D.C.  She
says, "Sometimes I feel that I can't possi- bly go on another day with this,
and then I see that I live in the greatest country in the world.  I have the
freedom to move about and choose what I do, and what I say; I think of the
men that are over there, that they can't speak for them- selves...it gives
me the strength to work for their release."

The Lao Government claims to have no knowledge of Michael "Bat" Masterson.