KROGMAN, ALVA RAY

Name: Alva Ray Krogman
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 12 April 1941
Home City of Record: Worland WY
Date of Loss: 17 January 1967
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 170159N 1055758E (XD011815)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: O1F
Refno: 0572
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 with the assistance
of 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:

SYNOPSIS: All tactical strike aircraft operating in Southeast Asia had to be
under the control of a Forward Air Control (FAC), who was intimately
familiar with the locale, the populous, and the tactical situation. The FAC
would find the target, order up U.S. fighter/bombers from an airborne
command and control center or ground based station, mark the target
accurately with white phosphorus (Willy Pete) rockets, and control the
operation throughout the time the planes remained on station. After the
fighters had departed, the FAC stayed over the target to make a bomb damage
assessment (BDA).

The FAC also had to ensure that there were no attacks on civilians, a
complex problem in a war where there were no front lines and any hamlet
could suddenly become part of the combat zone. A FAC needed a fighter
pilot's mentality, but but was obliged to fly slow and low in such unarmed
and vulnerable aircraft as the Cessna O1 Bird Dog, and the Cessna O2.

1Lt. Alva R. Krogman was a FAC assigned a mission over Laos on January 17,
1967. At a point west of the DMZ in the extreme northern portion of
Savannakhet Province, Laos, his aircraft was shot down. Krogman, who was
believed to have died in the crash of the aircraft, was never found.
Although he is listed as Killed, he is also counted among the missing
because no remains were ever recovered to return home.

Laos is often called the "Black Hole" of the POW issue because, of nearly
600 Americans lost there, not a single man was ever released that had been
held in Laos. The Pathet Lao stated on several occasions that they held
prisoners, yet we never negotiated for their freedom. These men were
abandoned by the government for which they bravely fought.

Since American involvement in the war in Southeast Asia ended, refugees have
flooded the world, bringing with them stories of American soldiers still
held prisoner in their homeland. Many authorities now believe that hundreds
were left behind as living hostages.

Alva R. Krogman apparently did not survive the events of January 17, 1967.
His family has accepted that he is dead. They no longer expect him to come
home someday. But hundreds of families wait expectantly and in the special
agony only uncertainty can bring. Hundreds of men wait in caves, cages and
prisons. How much longer will we allow the abandonment of our best men?
It's time we brought them home.

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