LEVAN, ALVIN LEE

Name: Alvin Lee Levan
Rank/Branch: E3/US Navy
Unit:
Date of Birth: 05 June 1946
Home City of Record: Catawissa PA
Date of Loss: 25 October 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 125558N 1093701E (CQ500300)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: PCF 87
Refno: 2025
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 October 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:

SYNOPSIS: Seaman 3rd Class Alvin Lee Levan was a gunner's mate aboard a PCF
87, also known as a "swiftboat." He and the crew of the PCF were on a patrol
mission in II Corp, South Vietnam in Phu Yen Province on October 25, 1966.

During the patrol, as the boat was a few miles offshore from Dai Lanh, Levan
suddenly suffered a seizure and fell overboard. The rest of the crew
believes hat he died before hitting the water. There is no further
information as to the nature of the seizure.

An extensive search of the area was made by his boat crew as well as
searches by air and ground units which continued for several days. No sign
was ever found of Alvin Lee Levan.

Alvin Levan is among nearly 2500 who did not return from Southeast Asia.
Although there is every indication that Alvin did not survive, there is
mounting evidence that hundreds of other Americans did survive, and wait for
rescue still from prison camps in Southeast Asia.

Men like Alvin Levan did their best job for this country. They did not
consider abandoning us. How can we consider abandoning those who wait for
us?
 

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01/2020

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000KZXoEAO

GMG3 ALVIN LEE LEVAN

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Seaman Alvin Lee Levan, who joined the U.S. Navy from Pennsylvania, served in the Patrol Craft Fast Division 105, Coastal Squadron 1. On October 25, 1966, he was serving as a gunner aboard PCF 87 on a routine patrol off the coast of South Vietnam when he fell off the boat in the vicinity of (GC) 49Q CQ 500 300. Four surface vessels and several aircraft searched for him but were unsuccessful. After the incident, the Navy promoted SN Levan to the rank of Gunner's Mate Third Class (GMG3). Today, Gunner's Mate Third Class Levan 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.

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