Specialist Fourth Class Duane Ludwig Winget, 23, disappeared during a river-crossing training exercise at Fort Lewis, Washington, on February 15, 1962. Assigned to the Army National Guard from Wisconsin, Winget was traversing a single-rope bridge about six feet above the Nisqually River with his pistol belt hooked over the rope as a safety measure. He lost his grip, his safety belt unbuckled, and he fell into the fast, frigid current.

Comrades immediately attempted rescues, some diving into the water, and a safety rope was positioned downstream but the river swept Winget past it. Army divers, helicopters, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department and local Native Americans searched in the hours and days that followed, but no trace of Winget was found. Born June 13, 1938, to Neil and Opal Winget and a high school graduate from Wisconsin, he is presumed to have drowned; the official classification is a suspected accident. His family memorialized him with a headstone in Wisconsin.

Did anyone with knowledge of Fort Lewis training or the Nisqually River in 1962 have additional details about the search or the exercise?