Medon Armin Bitzer
Killed in Action
USMA Class of 1950, First Lieutenant Bitzer was the pilot of a RF-51D Mustang fighter bomber with the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron, 18th Fighter Bomber Group. On January 8, 1952, while on a combat mission, his aircraft received a direct hit by anti-aircraft fire, burst into flames and crashed. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial. First Lieutenant Bitzer was awarded the Air Medal, the Purple Heart, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
He was USMA (West Point), Class of 1950; see following tribute to “Don” Bitzer
:http://www.usma1950.com/memorial/medon-armin-bitzer
Medon “Don”Armin Bitzer grew up in and called Johnson City, Washington County, Tennessee home after his father’s work brought them here in November of 1929. He attended school in Johnson City until his high school years and then he followed his older brother Conrad to the Tennessee Military Institute (TMI Academy) in Sweetwater, Tennessee. After Conrad graduated Don switched to the Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee and graduated with the Class of 1945.
Don enlisted in the United States Army on 5 September 1945 at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia with service number 44125243 just as World War II was coming to an official end. After that, he applied for the United States Military Academy (West Point) and since he’d already graduated a four year military academy, he was accepted. Don attended the United States Military Academy (USMA) Preparatory School at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. He slipped into his grays on 1 July 1946 and into a new adventure. Don graduated the USMA with the Class of 1950 as a newly appointed Second Lieutenant with a slot into the United States Air Force’s pilot program.
Don became a fighter pilot and flew a RF-51D Mustang fighter bomber assigned to the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron, 18th Fighter Bomber Group. While on a combat mission over North Korea his plane took a direct hit from anti-aircraft fire. The plane burst into flames & crashed. Don’s body has never been recovered.
Don was 24 years old and the son of Medon Amandus Bitzer and Helga Margaretha Erica Brackenbusch. His older brother Guenther Conrad Bitzer served in the United States Army during World War II and was Killed in Action.
- Rank: First Lieutenant
- Date of birth: 5 June 1927
- Date of death: 8 January 1952
- County: Washington
- Hometown: Johnson City
- Service Branch: Air Force
- Division/Assignment: 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron, 18th Fighter Bomber Group
- Conflict: Korean War
- Awards: Air Medal, Purple Heart, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Presidential Unit Citation, and Republic of Korea War Service Medal
- Burial/Memorial Location: Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XXI, Bottom Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Medon A. Bitzer
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