American War Hero · Vietnam War · Notice Nearby

No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the service and the writing, not an invented face.

Joseph L. Hart

September 11, 1924 – unaccounted for since February 25, 1967

Born Thayne / Afton area, Wyoming

Loss location: Laos (armed-reconnaissance crash location)

Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Air Force; pilot, 1st Air Commando Squadron; A-1E Skyraider (52-132625, call sign Hobo 36), armed reconnaissance over Laos, February 25, 1967

Missing in action — DPAA lists Lt. Col. Joseph Leslie Hart as Unaccounted For (Active Pursuit), profile a0Jt0000000Ka2xEAC (verified 2026-09-21). Pilot of A-1E Skyraider 52-132625 (Hobo 36) on an armed-reconnaissance mission over Laos February 25, 1967; aircraft crashed into a hillside, exploded and burned on impact. Wingman saw no parachute and no sign of survival. Remains not recovered. Memorialized on the Courts of the Missing, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Active Pursuit is an open investigative track, not a recovered grave.

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Joseph Leslie Hart entered the Air Force from Wyoming — home of record Afton — and by early 1967 was a lieutenant colonel flying the A-1E Skyraider with the 1st Air Commando Squadron. On February 25, 1967, he was Hobo 36 in a two-ship armed-reconnaissance flight over Laos.

While working up a valley, his Skyraider (tail 52-132625) hit a hillside, exploded, and burned. His wingman saw no parachute and no sign anyone walked away from the fire. He remains unaccounted for.

DPAA profile a0Jt0000000Ka2xEAC still lists him Unaccounted For, analytical category Active Pursuit. He is on the Courts of the Missing in Honolulu and on the Wall in Washington. This register will not invent a hillside recovery the public file does not show. A wingman's last look and an open ledger are the documentation.

Publication: NN-HERO-1965-012
Content hash: d2325f0d c081d2a2 1995755f 70d62f62 7477324a 22c6604a 0adfd26f cb9a0230
Base anchor: 0x6ba927 a60205ae 5cc8c929 77d95cea acb752da 9475f8d0 40816f5b dd2cc177 2e

Base stores the content hash, publication number, memorial id, and timestamp — not the full obituary text. The complete memorial remains on Notice Nearby. This is not a legal affidavit.