Karl Edwin Klute - KIA

Preferred Name: Karl
Date of Birth: July 16, 1936
Highest Military Grade: 0-3 – Captain
Hometown: Richmond, IN
Headed West Date: March 14, 1966

Captain Karl Edwin Klute entered the U.S. Air Force from Indiana and served with the 90th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On March 14, 1966, he piloted a single-seat F-100D Super Sabre (tail number 55-3793) on a combat mission over South Vietnam. While making a strafing pass against enemy targets near Soc Trang, his aircraft crashed and exploded in the vicinity of GC XR 200 600. He was not observed to eject from his aircraft before it hit the ground. Enemy forces in the area precluded search efforts, and Capt Klute remains unaccounted-for. (1)

Karl Edwin Klute is buried or memorialized at Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, and is honored on the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington DC. His name is inscribed at VVM Wall, Panel 06e, Line 7. There is also a military marker in his memory at Arlington National Cemetery.

Sources: Bio and Award Info – HonorStates.org; (1) POWnetwork.org;