Byron Kent Kulland

In QUANG TRI, SOUTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died while missing, HELICOPTER - PILOT AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND

DPAA

On February 7, 1994, Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of First Lieutenant Byron Kent Kulland, missing from the Vietnam War.

First Lieutenant Kulland entered the U.S. Army from North Dakota and was a member of Troop F, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 196th Infantry Brigade. On April 2, 1972, he piloted a UH-1H Iroquois (tail number 67-17801, call sign "Blueghost 39") assisting on a rescue operation for a group of American military personnel shot down over South Vietnam. The aircraft was approaching the target area in Quang Tri Province when it came under heavy enemy ground fire that caused it to crash, killing 1LT Kulland. An active enemy presence in the loss area prevented the recovery of 1LT Kulland's remains at the time. In 1993, a joint team traveled to Quang Tri Province and excavated the crash site and interviewed witnesses, which led to the recovery of human remains. In 1994, investigators were able to identify 1LT Kulland from these remains.

First Lieutenant Kulland is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Kulland was lost with fellow soldiers: WO John Wesley Frink of New Mexico and SP5 Ronald Page Paschall of Washington. All have been accounted for.