Viet Nam Vets Motorcycle  club   Alaska

Alaskan POW/MIA info

We take special pride in being members of the Viet Nam Vets Motorcycle Club of Alaska because it gives us the opportunity to keep the POW/MIA issue alive and it allows us to support needy veterans here in Alaska.  We thought we would pass on some information about Alaskans who participated and were killed in Viet Nam.  Members of our club spent years tracking down a lot of this information.  At the time, much of the information was distorted and confusing.  We were able to update the existing Veterans Administration records to reflect the correct data.  After figuring out that one of the service members list as being from Alaska was really from Arkansas, we determined that that the correct total number of Alaskan’s killed in Viet Nam was fifty-seven (57).  Of these, five Alaskans were listed as MIA at one time or the other. 

One, Charles Southwick of Fairbanks, later was classified as a POW (the only Viet Nam war POW from Alaska) and was returned during Operation Homecoming in April of 1973.  Mr. Southwick currently lives in California.

 Two, Corporal Richard Bauer and Colonel Floyd Richardson, both of Anchorage, were later classified as KIA and their remains were returned to the United States in 1973 and 1989 respectively.

 Howard Koslosky of Anchorage and Thomas Anderson of Spenard are the remaining two service men that were listed as MIA and were later classified as KIA.  An odd historical fact about these last two Alaskans is that both died on their very first day in Viet Nam and their bodies were the only two never recovered. Anderson arrived in October 6^th of 1962 and was killed when his UH-34 helicopter crashed in Quang Nam Province, South Viet Nam.  The UH-34 was that big ugly helicopter that was shown in the movie “Full Metal Jacket.” Koslosky arrived on October 2^nd of 1969 and died when his aircraft was lost over the Gulf of Tonkin, South Viet Nam.  His C2A "Greyhound" cargo plane was inbound from the Philippines to deliver cargo and 20 navel personnel to their ships when contact was lost.  A search by helicopters revealed only wreckage, an oil slick, and no signs of survivors. 

We will continue to provide further information about Alaskans who served and were killed and to lean more about the KIAs above you can click on the hyperlinks in this article.

Back