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SYNOPSIS: Steve Geist left college to join the Army, and graduated from Special Forces training third in his class. He had a choice of assignments, and selected Vietnam. He left his treasured old Chevy, "Black Beauty" to the care of his parents. His letters were filled with sadness of the death he saw, and of hopeful anticipation of his return. At 0910 hours on September 26, 1967, 1Lt. Lynn R. Huddleston was the pilot of an O1D reconnaissance aircraft on which Geist was the observer. Huddleston was from the 74th Aviation Company "Aloft", a recon aircraft company from the 145th Aviation Battalion. Geist was from Detachment A-332, 5th Special Forces Group. The aircraft left on a visual reconnasaince mission of the Minh Than area. A radio call was received by Detachment A-332 at 0930 hours from Lt. Huddleston. No coordinates were given. Again at 1030 hours, a call from Lt. Huddleston was monitored by Hon Quan Radar, and Huddleston gave his position as the vicinity of grid coordinates XT633739, or a few miles from the border of Cambodia just north of Minh Thanh. This was the last radio communication with the personnel aboard the O1D. The plane never reached its destination. Search and rescue was initiated at 1310 hours, but was terminated 3 days later without any sightings of either the aircraft or its crew. There has been no word of the two since. Reports continue to mount that Americans are held prisoner in Southeast Asia. Nearly 2500 Americans remain missing. Until serious effort is made to find them, their famlies will wonder whether their men are alive or dead.
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