Commander Max Duane Lukenbach

Early Life

Born on August 15, 1932, Max Lukenbach grew up in the plains of Louisa, Iowa. He lived with his mother, Anna Marie, father, Lorain Leroy, and sister, Phyllis Jean. Lukenbach graduated from Columbus Junction Community School. At some point in the 1950s, his family left Iowa and moved to Tucson, Arizona.

Records indicate that Lukenbach attended Iowa State Teachers College and the University of Arizona and eventually received a degree from Monterey College in California.

Homefront

During the Vietnam War, Max Duane Lukenbach’s hometown of Tucson, Arizona, stood at a crossroads of military might, economic expansion, and social change. In the years leading up to the conflict, Tucson experienced rapid growth and transformed from a modest desert town into a hub of defense and aerospace activity. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base cemented the city’s military ties, as the base played a critical role in training pilots and maintaining aircraft essential to the war effort.

Though not on the scale of the nation’s great industrial centers, Tucson’s role in wartime production was nevertheless significant. The city’s aerospace and defense industries, spearheaded by Hughes Aircraft—later absorbed into Raytheon—produced missile systems and electronic components crucial for military operations. Davis-Monthan served as a training ground and a vital hub for aircraft maintenance. 

While Tucson was not a major wartime agriculture center, southern Arizona contributed to the national food supply. The region’s cotton fields produced fabric, and its livestock industry supplied beef. Though these contributions were indirect, they underscored the region’s role in sustaining both domestic and military needs.

As the Vietnam War raged, Tucson’s population swelled, the city expanded, and defense contracts shaped the economic landscape. This led to rising social tensions. The University of Arizona became a focal point for anti-war sentiment as student activists and demonstrators took to the streets in protest. At the same time, Tucson remained home to a strong military presence, with many families connected to the armed forces.

The war’s impact was felt unevenly across Tucson’s diverse population. Mexican American and Native American communities, long integral to the region’s history, were disproportionately represented in military service, reflecting broader national trends. Meanwhile, debates over civil rights, military funding, and the nation’s involvement in Vietnam stirred local politics, mirroring the divisions seen across the country.

Military Experience

Max Lukenbach enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve on October 4, 1953, and entered the Navy’s Aviation Cadet Program on February 21, 1954. In October 1957, Lukenbach was the navigator of a plane based on an aircraft carrier that crashed off the coast of Kyushu, Japan. Lukenbach and two other crew members survived and were rescued by Japanese coastal ships. 

In 1958, Lukenbach married Rozelle M. Mayersak in Tucson, Arizona. They had two children, Steven Max on May 5, 1960, and Kathryn Ann on July 10, 1962. 

Lukenbach served as an A3D and F4D Skyray pilot at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, from September 1959 to August 1961. He then completed training to fly an RA-5C Vigilante, a supersonic bomber designed to fly off and return to aircraft carriers. Rising through the ranks to lieutenant commander, he served as both a combat pilot and a fixed-wing air casualty pilot, transporting critically ill or injured patients over long distances. He was qualified to fly combat aircraft and command land operations.

Commemoration

Final Mission

On December 22, 1965, Commander Max Lukenbach and Lieutenant Junior Grade Glenn H. Daigle were assigned to a reconnaissance mission. They were tasked to photograph a railroad bridge at Hai Duong and a strategic power plant in a heavily defended area targeted on a previous mission. Despite unfavorable weather conditions and intense antiaircraft and missile defenses, the crew pressed forward. While making a reconnaissance pass over the Hai Duong Railroad Bridge, the aircraft, Flint River 603, was downed by one of three surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

Daigle was able to eject from the plane before it crashed. He was captured by North Vietnamese forces and imprisoned at the Hoa Lo prison, known by the prisoners as the Hanoi Hilton. He was held as a Prisoner of War until his release on February 12, 1973.

Lukenbach died with the plane. According to some accounts, he was buried in a nearby local cemetery, but his remains have never been identified. On May 19, 1969, the military changed his status from Missing in Action to Killed in Action. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to investigate this case. 

Legacy

Max Lukenbach was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroism in aerial combat and the Purple Heart. His name is engraved on the Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.

Commander Max Duane Lukenbach will be remembered for his courage, leadership, and unwavering commitment to excellence. He embodied the spirit of service throughout his decorated military career. May Commander Lukenbach’s legacy continue to inspire generations beyond the cockpit.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Command Operations Reports, USS Kitty Hawk. Naval History and Heritage Command. Accessed May 2, 2025. https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/archives/Collections/command-operations-reports-old-do-not-delete/ships/k/kitty-hawk-cv-63-ii.html. 

Hopkins, Bill. Anti-draft demonstrators temporarily defied the takeoff of a busload of inductees from a downtown Scott Avenue departure point but the bus and a swarm of city policemen won out on December 5, 1967. Photograph. Tucson Citizen [Tucson, AZ], December 5, 1967. https://tucson.com/news/retrotucson/photos-vietnam-war-protests-in-tucson/collection_ffb397d4-3547-51b2-ba9e-7894bfef9d52.html#11. 

Iowa. Louisa County. 1940 U.S. Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.

Iowa. Louisa County. 1950 U.S. Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.

“Japs Coastal Ships Save US Jet Crew.” The Sandusky Register [Sandusky, OH], October 15, 1957. Newspapers.com (4853317). 

“Japs Rescue Three Fliers.” News Journal [Mansfield, OH], October 15, 1957. Newspapers.com (294482183).

An LTV A-7D Corsair from Davis-Monthan AFB in flight. Photograph. 1972-1973. National Museum of the Air Force. https://tucson.com/news/retrotucson/photos-aircraft-over-tucson-through-the-years/collection_c2a41580-8aac-11e8-9ca8-137228095f74.html#9. 

“Lukenbach, Max D.” Manuscript/Mixed Material. Library of Congress (PWMASTER_6636). https://www.loc.gov/search/?fa=subject_name:lukenbach,+max+d. 

Max Duane Lukenback in military dress uniform. Photograph. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LKSY-KYR/max-duane-lukenbach-1932-1965. 

The Plaza Theater (lower right) at Congress and Court streets in downtown Tucson on May 28, 1968 . . . . Photograph. Arizona Daily Star [Tucson, AZ]. May 28, 1968. https://tucson.com/news/retrotucson/look-back-heres-what-downtown-tucson-once-looked-like/collection_6c591972-8238-5a82-9294-41657fae7cfd.html#11. 

USS Kitty Hawk (CVA 63). Photograph. April 29, 1961. Naval History and Heritage Command (NH 51034). https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-51000/NH-51034.html.

Secondary Sources

“CDR Max Duane Lukenbach.” Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Accessed February 12, 2025. https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000KYkHEAW. 

“CDR Max Duane Lukenbach.” Find a Grave. Last modified December 9, 2010. Accessed February 16, 2025. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/62722652/max-duane-lukenbach. 

Coile, Norma.  “5 decades ago, Vietnam War started to alter Tucson and its children.” Arizona Daily Star [Tuscon, AZ], May 27, 2017. https://tucson.com/news/local/5-decades-ago-vietnam-war-started-to-alter-tucson-and-its-children/article_09d53632-2857-5004-b76c-67bb46326d47.html. 

“Davis-Monthan History” Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://www.dm.af.mil/Newcomers/Welcome-to-DM/History/. 

Gart, Jason H. “The Defense Establishment in Cold War Arizona, 1945–1968.” Journal of Arizona History 60, no. 3 (2019): 301-32. https://arizonahistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/The-Defense-Establishment-in-Cold-War-Arizona-1945%E2%80%931968_-Jason-Gart-project_muse_737794.pdf. 

Gonzalez, Hector. “Tucson Remembers the Cold War.” AZPM, May 1, 2010. https://www.azpm.org/s/1199-tucson-remembers-the-cold-war/. 

Hartwell, Meredith A. “Forgotten Fields: Coconico County’s 100-Year Agricultural History, and the Events That Caused Its Decline.” Master’s thesis, Northern Arizona University, 2011. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://in.nau.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2018/09/FORGOTTEN-FIELDS_MEREDITH-HARTWELL_THESIS_10-2011-ek.pdf. 

“Lukenbach, Max Duane.” POW Network. Accessed February 3, 2025. https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/l/l391.htm. 

“Max Lukenbach.” International Missing Persons Wiki. Accessed November 15, 2024. https://int-missing.fandom.com/wiki/Max_Lukenbach.

“Max D. Luckenbach.” Veterans Tributes. Accessed February 12, 2025. http://veterantributes.org/TributeDetail.php?recordID=1257 .

“Max Duane Luckenbach.” American Battle Monuments Commission. Accessed February 3, 2025. https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/lukenbach=max?inline=true. 

“Max Duane Lukenbach.” Honor States. Accessed February 9, 2025. https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=310284. 

Purcell, C., and Cherie Freeman. “4,000 Years of Farming in Tucson.” Archaeology Southwest. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/2015/12/20/4000-years-of-farming-in-tucson/.  

Rice, Valorie H. “Tucson Then and Now: What Has Changed over 75 Years.” Economic and Business Research Center, University of Arizona. Updated November 15, 2024. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://www.azeconomy.org/2024/11/demographics-census/tucson-then-and-now-what-has-changed-over-75-years/. 

This profile was researched and created through the Researching Silent Heroes program, sponsored by the American Battle Monuments Commission.