MIA Donald Joseph Trampski
Name: Donald Joseph Trampski
Rank/Branch: E2/US Army
Unit: Company B, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division
Date of Birth: 16 August 1948 (Michigan City IN)
Home City of Record: Chesterton IN
Date of Loss: 16 September 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 134039N 1080718E (AR888138)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Other Personnel in Incident: (None missing)
SYNOPSIS: PFC Donald J. Trampski was serving as a rifleman with his unit on an operation in central Pleiku Province, South Vietnam when the unit was required to cross a Montagnard bridge. Trampski lost his footing and fell into the river below. At the time, there was a severe rain storm in progress and the river was swollen with a vast current.
PFC Trampski was last seen in the water, swimming about 30 yards from the bridge. Searches were conducted 300 meters along the banks and continued for 3 weeks with no success. Because no body was ever found for Trampski, it was never known for certain that he died. The possibility existed that he was captured, and he was classified Missing In Action. The area in which the unit was operating was far from any formal city, and, as no enemy was present at that time, it is not known if the enemy knew his fate. Trampski is among nearly 2500 Americans who remain missing in Indochina.
Unlike "MIAs" from other wars, most of these men can be accounted for.
Tragically, nearly 10,000 reports concerning Americans still in Southeast Asia
have been received by the U.S. since the end of the war. Experts say that the
evidence is overwhelming that Americans were left behind in enemy hands. One of
them could be Donald J. Trampski.
YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN
