My name is Pat Rodgers, and I am the Director at Wings and Rotors Air Museum, at French Valley Airport, CA. I own an OH-58 that we are restoring as 68-16888, “Trip Ate”. Enclosed are some photos of the restoration. The aircraft should be flyable by the end of this year.
Specifics on the loss of 1Lt. Knuckey & Sgt. Taylor
VHPA information on 68-16888
Ed Kictarek (center) with 68-16888 in Nam
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service
“Carved on these walls is the story of America, of a continuing quest to preserve both Democracy and decency, and to protect a national treasure that we call the American dream.” ~ President George Bush
SOMETHING to think about – Most of the surviving Parents are now Deceased.
There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.
The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.
Beginning at the apex on panel 1E and going out to the end of the East wall, appearing to recede into the earth (numbered 70E – May 25, 1968), then resuming at the end of the West wall, as the wall emerges from the earth (numbered 70W – continuing May 25, 1968) and ending with a date in 1975. Thus the war’s beginning and end meet. The war is complete, coming full circle, yet broken by the earth that bounds the angle’s open side and contained within the earth itself.
The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.
· There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.
· 39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.
· The largest age group, 8,283 were just 19 years old; 33,103 were 18 years old.
· 12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.
· 5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.
· One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.
· 997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam.
· 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam.
· 31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.
· Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.
· 54 soldiers on attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia. I wonder why so many from one school.
· 8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.
· 244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.
· Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.
· West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.
· The Marines of Morenci – They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci’s mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.
· The Buddies of Midvale – LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam. In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
· The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.
· The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 – 2,415 casualties were incurred.
For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wife’s, sons and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.
(Submitted by Bill McCalister, Spur 24)
“Bringing short take off and vertical landing to a whole new level. The F-35B Joint Strike Fighter has advanced the technology of Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL). The F-35 true 5th Generation from every angle.”
Defending America: Protecting the Skies on Sept. 11, 2001 – FoxNews – 8 Sep 2011
Remembering September 11, 2001 – DoD
Ex-fighter pilot recalls her 9/11 suicide mission – Seattle Times – 9 Sep 11
9-11 Remembered: Rick Rescorla was a soldier – The Mudville Gazette
How two lives intersected on 9/11 – ArmyTimes – 10 Sep 11
America the Beautiful 9-11 Tribute:
Boatlift, An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience:
This was not a proud moment for the South Vietnamese military. The North Vietnamese were advancing southward toward Da Nang, and Saigon fell a few days later. Chances are few of these deserters made it out of the country.
Chuck Oualline, Spur 3
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 20, 2011 8:11:51 EDT
GLEN CARBON, Ill. — Told that Randy Dalton was killed during the Vietnam War, his family in southwestern Illinois wondered for decades if their loved one, killed with an Army pal [Sgt. Gregory Antunano] when their helicopter was shot down in Cambodia, would ever make his way home.
On Sunday, 40 years to the day since Dalton died, that cloud — and the serviceman’s remains — finally will be laid to rest.
Dalton will be buried next to his parents with full military honors at a Glen Carbon’s Sunset Hill Cemetery, ending his long journey home after years of painstaking efforts to identify the Army specialist’s remains.
“It puts closure to this,” Dalton’s stepmother, Collinsville City Council member Liz Dalton, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “No longer will we wonder, ‘Is he still alive?’ Even though the (medic) said he was dead, you always wonder.”
Dalton was from Collinsville, where his late dad served as mayor in the early 1990s. He was just 20 when the scout helicopter he was occupying with two other men was shot down and made a crash landing in Cambodia during a reconnaissance mission near the South Vietnam border.
A medic [Mike Bergbauer] who arrived on a rescue helicopter found one of the first helicopter’s crewmen to be dead and tried to revive Dalton, who stopped breathing during the resuscitation efforts. Rescuers had to leave the bodies of the two dead men behind because of enemy fire.
When U.S. troops returned the next day to retrieve the bodies, the bodies were gone.
In 1989, officials in Hanoi turned over three boxes of remains to the U.S. government, though it took years to go through the remains and secure identifications before Dalton’s relatives were asked last winter to submit DNA samples.
In March, Dalton’s family learned that his remains had been identified.
“Somebody worked very hard at this,” another of Dalton’s sisters, Karen Dalton Kloster of St. Louis, told the Post-Dispatch. “And I’m just flat-out amazed. Somebody was very diligent. We’re very, very happy.”
Patty Hopper, a founding member of the Arizona-based POW/MIA nonprofit group called Task Force Omega Inc., said there are about 1,700 Americans from the Vietnam War listed as prisoners of war or missing and unaccounted for.
The Belleville News-Democrat reports that the Defense Department lists more than 83,000 military personnel still accounted for as of last week, the vast majority from World War II.
“In Randy’s case, we knew he was gone because a medic was taking care of him when Randy died,” Hopper said. “You know he didn’t spend years in captivity being exposed to God knows what.”
Liz Dalton, the stepmother, said the Department of Defense kept the family informed and sent packets every three months about the search efforts.
“We felt they were doing as much as they could,” added Dalton, who was married to Randy Dalton’s father for 30 years before he died in 2005 at age 80. “I would have loved for my husband to know they found Randy.”
The family was given the option of burial at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington or Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St. Louis, but they decided it would be more fitting for Randy Dalton to be laid to rest beside his parents. [End]
For more background information on the loss of Dalton & Antunano, please see our Spur site at:
http://northwestvets.com/spurs/honor2.htm
The Patriot Guard will also be providing an escort for Dalton.
SP/4 Randall Dalton - Photo by Dan Rhodes
15 August 2011:
Roger:
Not certain what feedback or information you found regarding Randy’s funeral, but it was amazing. The Illinois Patriot Guard that escorted Randy from the airport to the chapel was reportedly a mile long or 250+ motorcycles. When you exited onto the highway that led to the cemetary where the chapel was located, the highway was lined with 1050 large American flags, plus the flags inside the cemetary grounds from the chapel to the burial site.
The grounds around the chapel were covered with people although I have no idea how many. It was an incredible service. I wish you could have attended.
It was a sad occassion, but happy to finally have Randy back home.
I hope Sgt. Antunano’s remains are located so his family can have some closure.
Let me know if anything developes regarding Sgt. Antunano.
Steve Martin
17 August 2011:
Thought you might be interested in the fact that there is going to be a dedication of a travelling Vietnam memorial wall to my brother’s memory. It will be in Granite City, Illinois, on Labor Day Weekend. What a nice tribute. We understand that he is the only one of Illinois to be returned home so far.
Linda Kruse
10 November 2011 – Randall Dalton Veterans Park:
As tomorrow is Veterans Day it seems appropriate to share this update and photos with you.
My cousin, Randall Dalton, who was killed in action in Cambodia during the Vietnam war and whose body was removed by enemy soldiers and whose remains were subsequently found (39 & ½ years later), identified through DNA testing and returned to his family and finally buried (in July), 40 years to the day he was killed, has had a park dedicated in his honor and to the honor of all veterans since WW1, near his hometown, where I grew upIt is especially poignant to me as a Vietnam veteran having experienced the vilification my generation of veterans went through, in general, by the public, although we served our country, were separated from our families, made personal sacrifices, were put in harms way and many, like my cousin, gave their life for this country, albeit in a politically charged, unpopular and unsupported war
Personally I am happy to see the respectful remembrance Vietnam vets are finally receiving and pleased to see the respect our current generation of soldiers receive and deserve. Where any of us stand politically, soldiers, the people who fight and die, do so in the pursuit and protection of the American way of life.
Steve Martin
[Click on photo for full size image]
A long but very interesting read provided in PDF format by Arkansas Tech University. Adobe Reader required:
Fellow Spurs and dear friends, Pam and I wanted to share this with all of you. The Moving Wall was here in Bellevue, Wa. this past weekend and we wanted to share the experience.
Our very special thanks to Lois Gustafson and all the volunteers that helped put this all together. Having helped assemble & disassemble this very Wall in 2001 at the very same cemetery, we know just how much hard work and dedication it takes to put on this event.
At the close is a special dedication to Nathan Pulliam’s grandson-in-law who died in Afghanistan on 25 Jun 2011. The West Point dedication reads in part:
1Lt. Dimitri A. Del Castillo, 24, of Tampa, Florida died June 25, at Kunar province, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. He was on the radio calling in support when he was hit. He kept working on the support until he died with the handset in his hand.
We placed the picture of Dimitri with the roses at Panel 32E below the names of fallen Spurs Mehl & McNair mentioned in Col. Pulliam’s 4th of July address.
Of special note was our local Vietnamese who significantly contributed to hosting the Wall this time around. Without their help it would not have been possible. They were extremely gracious to all the veterans.
Our best,
Bear & Pam
July 4, 2011
My dear fellow Silver Spurs,
On this special day in our nation’s history, its 235 birthday (if I have calculated correctly), I want to wish you the best that I can send your way. It will not necessarily be a happy day for some of us, for whatever reasons, but we should remember its significance and the cost at which it was made possible.
The most difficult times in the lives of most commanders are those brief moments of horror at the loss of their people, followed by long periods of sadness – frequently never ending. In my case the darkest hour was in 1967 at Fort Knox when I witnessed the instant deaths of 10 of our people and the unbearable injuries of eleven more. Next came the loss in Vietnam in late 1967 of McNair and Mehl, which I observed from overhead. The last casualty of the 1967 accident was Jim Longworth. We grieve all losses, but those training and combat related are especially sad because none of them had to happen.
Yet, it is because in large measure that those losses and their sacrifices and the sacrifices of their families have made this day possible.
And, although not Troop related, I have gone down into the valley yet again, with the loss in Afghanistan, along the Pakistan border, of my grandson-in-law, another of our nation’s best. He died a hero’s death, leading his platoon while under attack from the front and both sides. He died minutes after being wounded, with his transmitter in his hand, calling in fire support for his beleaguered platoon. My granddaughter, at a Headquarters only a few miles away, heard it all on the radio.
Anyone interested can get more information on the battle by googling his name, 1LT Dimitri del Castillo. His death was on 25 June and the burial will be at West Point on this Friday, 8 July. If anyone living in the neighborhood should attend, please look me up.
Again, all the best on this special day to all of you.
Silver Spur 6, Dec 1966-Mar 1968
1LT Dimitri A. Del Castillo - Courtesy of West Point.org
1LT Dimitri A. Del Castillo USA (KIA) – West Point.org
DOD Identifies Army Casualties – 28 Jun 2011
Update 5 July 2011:
Thanks to fellow Spur, Gary Swartz, he found the following posted on Troop Scoop:
Love, Life and the Price of Independence
NANGARHAR PROVINCE – As Americans prepare to celebrate the country’s independence, July 4, they often take time to think about the men and women who protect and defend that independence — the men and women who lay down their lives, and their loved ones who sacrifice along with them.
Perhaps no one understands that sacrifice better than the friends and family of 1st Lt. Dimitri Del Castillo. A 2009 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Del Castillo died when his unit, the Hawaii-based 2nd Bn, conducted a massive counter-insurgency op in the Watahpur District of Kunar prov. He was just 24 years old, a newlywed and just starting his career as an infantryman.
The news reached his bride just minutes after his death. She was just a few miles away at an FOB in Jalalabad. Army 1st Lt. Kathleen Pulliam, or Katie as her friends know her, met Del Castillo during summer training after their Plebe (freshman) year at West Point. The academy wasn’t the most conventional place to start their story, but there was nothing conventional about them.
“Katie liked Dimitri instantly, but I remember her playing hard to get,” one of Pulliam’s friends, 1st Lt. Theresa Todd, EO of Co E, 1st Bn, 32nd Inf Regt, TF Chosin, 3rd BCT, 10th Mtn Div, TF Spartans, said from an outpost in Kandahar prov. “Of course there were so many male cadets that wanted to date Katie, that I’m sure Dimitri enjoyed winning the competition.”
Things didn’t change for the two, and their feelings only grew stronger despite the gruelling academic curriculum, mandatory events, and rugby practices at West Point. Del Castillo spent the couple’s Cow (junior) year of school studying abroad in Spain, but the distance only fortified the ever-growing bond the two shared, Pulliam recounted. She started every day in New York with a call from Spain.
Just before graduation, Todd sat with Pulliam at a restaurant in nearby Central Valley, N.Y., where they talked about their future. “Katie wanted to be with Dimitri,” said Todd. “She wanted to fulfill her 5-year commitment to the Army, and take care of Dimitri and their kids that she dreamed of having.”
Upon graduation, Del Castillo attended the Army’s Ranger School, and was assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C., with the hopes of a deployment to Afghanistan, while Pulliam was assigned to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. A few months later, Del Castillo was reassigned to Hawaii where the couple started making plans for their future together.
“I remember Katie and Dimitri took a weekend trip to Maui, where Dimitri proposed during their breakfast on the beach,” recalled 1st Lt. Denise Quigley, 3rd BSTB, TF Bayonet, 3rd BCT, 25th ID, TF Bronco. A classmate and friend of the couple, also serving in Afghanistan with Pulliam, Quigley explained that the 2 started planning their wedding for after their tours in Afghanistan, but were legally married prior to leaving.
Not only proud of her husband and the service to her country, Pulliam recently wrote how she was extremely honored to be part of the dual-military population (both husband and wife actively serving in the military).
“I work late nights with the threat of indirect fire looming in the back of my mind,” she wrote. “I dream of the day when my husband and I can settle down, and I can start having children, but for now that dream is on hold. The Army is about sacrifice, and I know that I am beyond blessed to be able to deploy with my husband.”
Pulliam will never know the future she may have had with Del Castillo. She only has the memories of the life they shared together before the deployment to help her through these painful days. Because of the Global War on Terror, dealing with the loss of friends and classmates has been an unfortunately growing occurrence for West Point graduates; all are required to serve a 5-year term in the Army.
“I remember at school when they’d announce the deaths of the graduates killed in combat,” said Todd. “There was a time our Yuk (sophomore) year where we were observing moments of silence what seemed like every other day. Now, they’re doing moments of silence for our class, for our friends, for the people that we love. West Point taught us everything about our future in the Army, except for the most important thing we need to know – we will never be the same.”
Within hours of being notified of Del Castillo’s passing, Pulliam departed for the U.S. where she will spend the next several days preparing for the arrival of his body, and making arrangements for his memorial.
“The last time I saw my husband was from a helicopter after a memorial ceremony for a fallen soldier in his battalion,” Pulliam explained. “As the helicopter lifted off, he waved and waved until he became so small that I couldn’t see him anymore. Suddenly, my view changed to mud huts, mountains and a giant meandering river. I was gone so quickly, left only with the memories of a 4-hour visit. The vision of him waving will stick with me as long as I live.”
Update 8 Jul 2011:
Pictures from Memorial Service at FOB Joyce in Afghanistan
U.S. Army Major General Daniel B. Allyn, (front) commander of ISAF Regional Command (East) salutes during a memorial ceremony in forward firebase Joyce in Kunar province, July 7, 2011. Four U.S. Army soldiers, Lieutenant Dimitri Del Castillo, Staff Sergeant Nigel Kelly, Specialist Levi Nuncio and Specialist Kevin Hilaman, two Afghan National Army soldiers, an Afghan linguist and Agdar, a military sniffer dog died during operations in Kunar district in the last week of June 2011.
U.S. Army Major General Daniel B. Allyn, commander of ISAF Regional Command (East) takes part during a memorial ceremony in forward firebase Joyce in Kunar province, July 7, 2011.
The dog collar belonging to Agdar, a military sniffer dog who died during operations in Kunar district, is displayed during a memorial ceremony in forward firebase Joyce in Kunar province July 7, 2011.
Produced by my wife, Pam, honoring the women, both military and civilian who served during the Vietnam war. Pam served in the Navy from 1970-1974 and was assigned to CINCPAC Joint Command and worked on Operation Homecoming for our POWs.
Here’s some more background by Pam on the civilian women who were killed during Vietnam:
http://northwestvets.com/op-baby.htm
And more on the nurses who perished:
Proud American Veterans
In Honor of
Sgt. Gregory Antunano
KIA-BNR Cambodia, 24 July 1971
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