CHARLES P GIRARD
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HONORED ON PANEL 30W, LINE 88 OF THE WALL

CHARLES PIERRE GIRARD

WALL NAME

CHARLES P GIRARD

PANEL / LINE

30W/88

DATE OF BIRTH

08/09/1949

CASUALTY PROVINCE

QUANG TRI

DATE OF CASUALTY

03/09/1969

HOME OF RECORD

PASADENA

COUNTY OF RECORD

Los Angeles County

STATE

CA

BRANCH OF SERVICE

ARMY

RANK

SP5

Book a time
Contact Details

REMEMBRANCES

LEFT FOR CHARLES PIERRE GIRARD
POSTED ON 3.9.2015
POSTED BY: a Grateful Marine, Quang Tri, 1969

Thank You

Thank you Spec. 5 Girard for your skill and courage.
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POSTED ON 1.24.2015

Final Mission of SP5 Charles P. Girard

On March 9, 1969, U.S. Army helicopter UH-1H tail number 66-17121 from B Company, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, operating in Quang Tri Province (I Corps) went missing while attempting to resupply Marine FSB Winchester. Three days later the burned wreckage was found with no survivors. Lost in the crash were aircraft commander CW2 David A. Poley, pilot 1LT Daniel J. O’Neill, crew chief SP5 Charles P. Girard, gunner SP4 Dennis A. Ormond, and crewman PFC Richard D. Shields. In March 1999, former B/101 AVN member Ed Ragan gave this narrative of the incident: “We never let new guys fly the type of mission Dan was on 3/9/69. Although it was not strictly a volunteer mission, you did want to have a crew with experience including the pilots, crew chief, door gunner and belly man. I'll try & explain what everyone's job was to give you a idea of how we functioned. With flight crews the pilots rank did not matter, just who was the most experienced. The aircraft commander was the senior pilot, the co-pilot was junior in experience. The crew chief was the enlisted man assigned to that aircraft for the daily maintenance and also served as the left side door gunner. The other door gunner maintained the machine guns and helped the crew chief. The aircraft commander, crew chief & door gunner were assigned to a particular helicopter, co-pilots rotated between crews as needed until they received their AC orders and their own helicopter. The belly man, was only used for specific types of missions, was added firepower and gave the pilots clearance directions in cases where the helicopter was making a vertical descent through the trees usually while getting shot at. FOB-OSG missions (Green Berets) or LRRP (Long Range Recon Patrols [Rangers]) missions normally put small teams of 5-7 men in the field to locate bad guys and gather information. LRRP's primarily worked well inside the borders of the country while FOB-SOG missions were close to the border. When you put a team into the field the helicopter crew stayed on stand-by until they pulled the team out. Missions could last anywhere from 2 days to 4 days on the outside. That week we had put a couple of teams in the field and had to extract them within 24 hours because they had made contact with large enemy forces. As I said in my first note I was getting very close to leaving for home(less than a week to go) and wanted to get out of the field. CW 2 Poley came up to the forward base to relieve me on the afternoon of 3/8/69, the helicopter was lost the next morning. At the time the ship went down they were trying to get badly needed supplies to a radio relay station which was their only contact with the team in the field. The relay station was just South of the DMZ on top of a mountain. The mountain top was closed in by the clouds and Dave & Dan had made several attempts to land without success, my understanding is that they were trying to hover up the side of the mountain to reach the station when the radio crew heard a large amount of gun fire from the bad guys answered from the helicopter, then an explosion. No one knows for sure exactly how the ship went down only that it took several days to find it in the jungle. Dan was a good pilot, dependable under stress and clear headed. There were five damn good men on that helicopter each of them there because they wanted to be and because the other four men trusted them with their lives. Some people could never fly FOB or LRRP missions their nerves just could not take the stress. I don't mean to infer that because some didn't fly that type of mission they were less than, only that I believe you should know that Dan was a good pilot and was very well trusted by those who flew with him. I flew with Dan the day before he was killed along with three others from our unit. Being very, very short (7 days) I was not in the mood to fly at all, much less along the DMZ or west for an hour. I begged out of the mission we had been on for a week (read as you'll only be there overnight). CW2 Polley relieved me as AC late the afternoon of March 8, 1969 and the entire crew, including a USMC belly man, were killed the next morning. Mr. Poley had just returned from a thirty-day leave after extending, primarily to fly FOB-SOG missions. I can't remember the belly-man, but the rest of the crew was damn good.” [Taken from vhpa.org]
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POSTED ON 3.10.2014
POSTED BY: Curt Carter [email protected]

Remembering An American Hero

Dear SP5 Charles Pierre Girard, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

With respect, Sir

Curt Carter
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POSTED ON 8.11.2013
POSTED BY: Robert Sage

We Remember

Charles is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, Los Angeles,CA.
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POSTED ON 11.3.2010
POSTED BY: Robert Sage

We Remember

Charles is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Los Angeles, CA. BSM PH
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