THE WALL OF FACES

Brother MEL, Happy Memorial Day! I miss you we ALL miss you! Thanks for all you did and the sacrifices you made to protect our freedoms! We will get that DFC on your marker at Ft Logan...somehow...someway...Here's a Toast!

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) website at the below link, the MIA status of Captain Melvin Earl Ladewig, USAF, is ACTIVE PURSUIT:

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000KZWgEAO

The latest DPAA update (28 February 2020) lists 1,587 Americans still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam War. Capt. Ladewig is one of those 1,587 MIAs.

https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/VietnamAccounting/pmsea_una_ALL_20200228.pdf

On the night of the armed reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam of the F-4 Phantom II fighter jet aircraft on which he was the Pilot Systems Officer, 24 August 1968, Ladewig was a 1st Lt. While in MIA status, the U.S. Air Force promoted him to Captain. The F-4's Aircraft Commander, Charles H.W. Read Jr., received promotions while in MIA status from Major to Lieutenant Colonel and, later, to Colonel.

MIA Captain Melvin Earl Ludwig, USAF, has his name chiseled into one of the "Courts of the Missing" at the Honolulu Memorial in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on the island of Oahu in the state of Hawaii. See the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) website at this link:

https://www.abmc.gov/node/511821

Information regarding MIA Captain Melvin Earl Ladewig, USAF, from the POW Network website is available at this link:

https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/l/l003.htm

Information regarding Vietnam War MIA Captain Melvin Earl Ladewig, USAF, from the Task Force Omega website is at the below link:

http://taskforceomegainc.org/l003.html