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 1998.

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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