THE WALL OF FACES

Colorado Joseph Clair Austin, Served with the 34th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, 7th Air Force. Montani Semper Liberi !

I am the Curator of the POW/MIA Bracelet Display in the Vietnam Hangar of the Palm Springs Air Museum in Palm Springs, California where we now have over two thousand bracelets and would be honored to include your bracelet in our Display. If you are an immediate family member (spouse, fiancé, sibling, child, grandchild, cousin, niece, nephew) or close friend I can order one for the Display in your name.
https://palmspringsairmuseum.org/vietnam-pow-bracelet-display/
Dr. Dave Thompson
Palm Springs Air Museum
POW/MIA Bracelet Display Curator
Lt. Commander U.S. Navy 1964-1970
10-103 Lakeview Dr. Rancho Mirage, Ca 92270
760-328-0859 760-408-7660 [email protected]

The Department of Defense conducted ceremonies at the Pentagon and at Hickam Air Force Base on Friday, 16 September 2022 in commemoration of POW/MIA Recognition Day. DoD Officials the 1,582 MIAs from the Vietnam War as well as all those still unaccounted for from WWII, the Korean War, the Cold War and other conflicts. Since the 2021 Ceremony, DPAA has positively identified 2 Vietnam War MIAs. Colonel Joseph Clair Austin, USMA Class of 1952, is one of those 1,582 MIAs unaccounted for in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam War. He is also one of 10 graduates from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who is still MIA. The other 9 USMA MIAs (rank, name & class) are: (1) Col. Wallace Hynds (1945); (2) Col. Herbert Brennan (1947); (3) Col. John Armstrong (1949); (4) Maj. Carl Mitchell (1950); (5) Col. Lawrence Tatum (1953); (6) Col. Robert Stewart (1956); (7) CPT H.R. "Rocky" Versace (1959); (8) Capt. James Dawson (1963); & (9) MAJ James “Cliff” McKittrick (1964).

Information about the crash of an F-105D Thunderchief jet aircraft from the 34th Tactical Fighter Squadron piloted by MIA Lt. Col. * Joseph Clair Austin, USMA class of 1952, USAF, in Southeast Asia (SEA) (over North Vietnam) on 19 March 1967 is available at this link/URL on the Vietnam Air Losses website:

https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1047

* While in MIA status, the U.S. Air Force promoted Lt. Col. Austin to Colonel along with his Air Force contemporaries.

Colonel Joseph Clair Austin, USMA class of 1952, USAF, has his name chiseled into one of the stone "Courts of the Missing" (Vietnam War Section, Air Force Court "A") at the Honolulu Memorial in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (the "Punchbowl") on the island of Oahu in the state of Hawaii. See his entry at the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) website at this link/URL:

https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/austin%3Djoseph