JUDD, MICHAEL BARRY

DATE RETURNED:  2012/06/25
REMAINS ID DATE:  2012/08/23


Name: Michael Barry Judd
Rank/Branch: E4/USMC
Unit: A Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division
Date of Birth: 22 Autust 1945
Home City of Record: Cleveland OH
Date of Loss: 30 June 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 161349N 1074301E (YC896956)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: CH46A
Refno: 0746

Other Personnel In Incident: John House; Merlin Allen; John Killen; Glyn
Runnels (all still missing)

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 2020.

REMARKS: DED/CRSH BRN/SOM RECOV/NT SUBJ

SYNOPSIS: Capt. John A. House was the pilot of an CH46A helicopter carrying
personnel assigned to Company A, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine
Division near the city of Phu Bai, South Vietnam on June 30, 1967.

Among the passengers onboard the aircraft were members of Company A, LCpl.
Merlin R. Allen, LCpl. John D. Killen, and Cpl. Glyn L. Runnels. Also
onboard was the company's hospital corpsman, Petty Officer Third Class
Michael B. Judd.

The aircraft was hit by small arms fire, exploded and crashed. Although some
of the personnel aboard survived, House, Allen, Judd, and Killen were never
found, nor were remains recovered that could be identified as theirs. The
four men were listed as killed in action, body not recovered.

Nearly 2500 Americans did not return from Southeast Asia at the end of the
war. Some, like the pilot and passengers of the CH46, are probably dead and
will never come home. Since the end of the war, however, thousands of
refugee reports have been received that indicate hundreds of Americans are
still alive, held captive.

It is a matter of pride in the Marine Corps that one's comrades are never
left on the field of battle to fall into the hands of the enemy. One can
imagine that these men, had they survived, would willingly go one more
mission for the return of those who still await rescue. Although some of the
personnel aboard survived, House was never found, nor were remains recovered
that could be identified as his. He was listed as killed in action, body not
recovered.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 522-13
July 18, 2013
Sailor Missing from Vietnam War Identified

 
            The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and have been returned to his family for burial with full military honors. 

            Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Michael B. Judd of Cleveland was buried on July 15, in Arlington National Cemetery.  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.  The aircraft crashed landed.  Although most of the reconnaissance team to survived, Judd and four other crew members of the team, 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 investigated the loss in Thua Thien-Hue Province.  In 1999, the team interviewed the same local villagers who provide relevant case information and the joint team 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 remains.  

            For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1420.
 

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01/2020

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000pHL33EAG

HM3 MICHAEL BARRY JUDD

Return to Service Member Profiles

On February 27, 2013, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Hospital Corpsman Third Class Michael Barry Judd, missing from the Vietnam War.

Hospital Corpsman Judd entered the U.S. Navy from Ohio and was attached to Company A, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division. On June 30, 1967, he was a passenger aboard a CH-46 Sea Knight (bureau number unknown) on a mission to insert Marines into hostile territory in Thua Thien Province, Vietnam. The Sea Knight was downed by enemy fire as it approached the landing zone, and HM3 Judd was killed in the crash. His remains could not be recovered at the time due to heavy enemy presence in the area. In 2012, a joint U.S./Vietnamese search team excavated the Sea Knight's crash site, recovering human remains, and modern forensic techniques identified HM3 Judd from among the recovered remains.

Hospital Corpsman Judd is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.