NEWS

Air Force puts out APB for missing Middletown airman

Douglas Walker
dwalker@muncie.gannett.com

MIDDLETOWN – The U.S. Air Force on Friday issued an all-points bulletin in Italy for a Middletown airman who has been missing since last Saturday.

Halex Hale, 24, is a staff sergeant assigned to the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, about 50 miles northeast of Venice.

He was last seen on the evening of Saturday, July 2, when he attended a cookout at a friend’s house in Sacile, Italy, nine miles from the air base.

The Middletown man’s mother, Amy Hale, said Thursday her son then left for another friend’s home, about 15 minutes away by foot, but never arrived there.

Amy Hale was notified of her son’s disappearance on Monday. Her husband, Lance, traveled to Italy on Friday.

“We’re just devastated,” she said. The distance — about 4,700 miles — and language barrier have made getting information a challenge, but Hale said she was aware several airmen from the base had conducted searches for Halex.

Halex, who previously served in Afghanistan, has been stationed in Italy since February 2015, his mother said.

Capt. Michael Hertzog II, a 31st Fighter Wing spokesman, told Star and Stripes, a news provider to the U.S. military community, that the Air Force became involved in the investigation on Thursday.

Earlier in the week, a group of Hale’s friends, and later Italian police, conducted searches of the area, the military newspaper reported.

Hertzog said based on search activities, local law enforcement officials “believe he’s still in the area.”

The Shenandoah High School graduate has been in the Air Force for six years and “absolutely loves it,” his mother said.

Hale said her family had been comforted by “such an outpouring of generosity and love” shown by friends and neighbors.

A prayer vigil was held at the Middletown Church of the Nazarene on Thursday evening.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.

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