KOENIG, EDWIN LEE

Name: Edwin Lee Koenig
Rank/Branch: O4/US Navy
Unit: Carrier Air Early Warning Squadron 12, Detachment 42, USS FRANKLIN D.
ROOSEVELT
Date of Birth: 20 February 1934
Home City of Record: Spokane WA
Date of Loss: 14 December 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: (none)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: E1B
Refno: 0548

Other Personnel In Incident: Gerald Holman; Richard Mowrey (missing); 2 other
crewmen who were rescued.

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 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 2020.

REMARKS: AC DITCH - 2 SURV RESC, NT SUBJ - J

SYNOPSIS: The USS FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT was to end its second tour of
Vietnam to leave the battle area by Christmas, 1966. On board was the
carrier's early warning squadron of four aircraft, for which LTJG Gerald A.
Holman was administrative officer. On December 14, Holman was launched from
the carrier as the pilot of an E1B propeller-driven warning plane carrying a
crew of five. The "Willie Fudd" departed on a routine mission, when one of
the engines failed. Holman was forced to ditch into the South China Sea.

Two of the crewmembers survived the crash and were subsequently rescued.
Holman, LTCDR Edwin L. Koenig, and LTJG Richard L. Mowrey were not found.
The three were listed as Killed/Body Not Recovered. The accident was not
battle related.

The crewmen of the Willie Fudd are listed with honor among the missing
because no remains were found. Their cases seem quite clear. For others who
are listed missing, resolution is not as simple. Many were known to have
survived their loss incident. Quite a few were in radio contact with search
teams and describing an advancing enemy. Some were photographed or recorded
in captivity. Others simply vanished without a trace.

Reports continue to mount that we abandoned hundreds of Americans to the
enemy when we left Southeast Asia. While the Willie Fudd's crew may not be
among them, one can imagine their proud willingness to fly one more mission
to help secure their rescue.

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01/2020

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000KZAQEA4

LCDR EDWIN LEE KOENIG

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On December 14, 1966, an E-1B Tracer (bureau number 147218, call sign "Palmetto 709") with a crew of five returning to the aircraft carrier USS Franklin Roosevelt (CVA 42) from a combat mission experienced engine difficulties over the South China Sea. The crew attempted to make it back to the carrier, but were forced to ditch the aircraft about six miles away from the ship. Rescuers from the ship located two crew members; the other three could not be recovered.

Lieutenant Commander Edwin Lee Koenig, who joined the U.S. Navy from Washington, served with Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 12 aboard the Franklin Roosevelt. He was a crew member on the Tracer when it was ditched, and he could not be located by rescue personnel. Today, Lieutenant Commander Koenig 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 Non-recoverable.

If you are a family member of this serviceman, DPAA can provide you with additional information and analysis of your case. Please contact your casualty office representative.

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