Michael John Masterson was born on May 16, 1937, in The Pas, Flin Flon-Northwest Census Division, Manitoba, Canada. He was the son of Mrs. Florence C. Masterson of Canada, and the husband of Mrs. Frances A. Masterson, and the father of one step-daughter, Miss Sheri R. Randle.

Michael enlisted with the Air Force on April 28, 1961, in Schenectady, New York. He was a pilot attached to the 602nd Special Operations Squadron stationed at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base (NKP) in Thailand. On October 13, 1968, he was the wingman on a flight of two USAF A-1 aircraft conducting an armed reconnaissance mission in the Barrel Roll area of Laos along Route 7. After nearly an hour in the air and close to their target area, LTC Masterson’s A-1G plane developed gyro indicator trouble, forcing him to abort the mission. The instrument failure caused Masterson to experience vertigo and he radioed his wingman that he was bailing out. The wingman, who was separated from Masterson in scattered clouds, reported seeing a bright orange fireball impact the ground. No parachute was observed. A C-130 flareship arrived about ten minutes after the crash, dropping flares and using a Starlight scope to further refine the crash site. During the several hours, it was on station, no emergency beeper was heard or voice contact established with Masterson by the flareship. Masterson was immediately declared Missing in Action. In 1978, he was declared legally dead by the military. In 2005, remains thought to be Masterson’s were repatriated to the U.S. In February 2006, they were positively identified as Bat Masterson’s.

Source of information: coffeltdatabase.org, www.findagrave.com, www.vvmf.org, and the book Cheating Death by George J. Marrett