The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today
that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and
will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Michael B. Judd, 21, of Cleveland, will be buried on
July 15, in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. On June 30, 1967, Judd was
aboard a CH-46A Sea Knight helicopter that was attempting to insert a U.S. Marine Corps
reconnaissance team into hostile territory in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam. As the
helicopter approached the landing zone, it was struck by enemy fire from the surrounding tree
line, causing the aircraft to catch fire and crash. Although most of the reconnaissance team
survived, Judd and four other crew members, died in the crash.
In 1993, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams investigated the case in
Thua Thien-Hue Province. The team interviewed local villagers who claimed to have discovered
an aircraft crash site in the nearby forest while searching for firewood in 1991. The team
surveyed the location finding aircraft wreckage that could not be associated with a CH-46A.
During the 1990s, joint U.S./ S.R.V. teams continued to investigate the loss in Thua
Thien-Hue Province. In 1999, the team re-interviewed local villagers who provided relevant case
information and the joint team re-surveyed the crash site again, this time uncovering aircraft
wreckage consistent with a U.S. military helicopter.
In 2012, joint U.S./ S.R.V. recovery teams began excavating the crash site and recovered
human remains and aircraft wreckage from the CH-46A helicopter that Judd was aboard.
Scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces
DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used forensic identification tools and circumstantial
evidence, including dental comparisons, in the identification of Judd’s remains.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing
Americans, visit the DPMO web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1420.