ALAN WENDELL GUNN
ALAN W GUNN
39E/6
REMEMBRANCES
Thank You
Thank you for your service as an Utility/Observation Helicopter Pilot. You are still MIA. PLEASE COME HOME. It has been too long, and it's about time for us all to acknowledge the sacrifices of those like you who answered our nation's call. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.
Lost mia bracelet / Alan W. Gunn
Alan Wendell Gunn
Love you buddy.
Tom Hatcher
Remembering An American Hero
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.
May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.
With respect, and the best salute a civilian can muster for you, Sir
Curt Carter
Final Mission of U.S. Army helicopter UH-1H tail number 66-17027
There are two accounts for this incident: First account - On February 12, 1968 pilots CW3 Alan W. Gunn and CAPT Jerry L Roe, crew chief SSGT Wade L. Groth, and medic SSGT Harry W. Brown were members of a UH-1H on a night medical evacuation flight. Their aircraft disappeared in Darlac Province. A search and rescue effort failed to locate them. The four crewmen were initially declared missing. In July 1971, a Vietnam People's Army defector identified a photograph of First Lieutenant Brown as an individual he had seen at a POW camp near Vinh City in August 1970. U.S. POW returnees were never able to confirm that Lieutenant Brown and the other crewmen. In July 1974, the wreckage of the UH-1H was located by a woodsman, but there was no trace of the crewmen. All four crewmen were declared deadbody not recovered on different dates between October 1973 and September 1978. Second Account - On February 12, 1968, SP5 Harry Brown, medic; 1Lt. Jerry Roe, aircraft commander; WO Alan Gunn, pilot; and SP4 Wade Groth, crewchief, were flying a UH-1H (tail #66-17027) dispatched on a night medical evacuation mission (dustoff). Dustoff 90 departed Ban Me Thuot, South Vietnam for Gia Nghai Special Forces camp. As U.S. Air Force Tactical Control Radar operators at Ban Me Thuot tracked the flight, the blip that was the UH1H dustoff chopper disappeared from the screen at 2019 hours. The helicopter apparently went down 20 minutes outbound from its base in a mountainous region of Quang Duc Province. An Army Infantry unit searched the apparent crash site near the Cambodian border for 36 hours, but found neither the helicopter nor its crew. Snipers were not known to be in the area, and it is not believed the helicopter was shot down, according to an Army report, indicating possible mechanical trouble. In April 1969, CIA was asked to analyze the positive identifications made by a rallier of a number of photographs of missing Americans. The rallier selected the photos of both Harry Brown and Jerry Roe as two men he believed to have been prisoners of war. CIA could not determine why the source selected them. In 1979, Sean O'Toolis, an Irish-American, was touring Bong Song Camp, 40 miles south of Hanoi, on an IRA gun-buying mission, when he alleges he met and spoke with American prisoners, Brendon Foley and Wade Groth, a prison workmate of Foley's. He also claims to have talked to men named MacDonald, Jenning and an O'Hare or O'Hara. He brought a message to Foley's brother and fingerprints of Foley and O'Hara. He identified old photos of Groth, and gave believable descriptions of Foley and Groth. Neither family knows whether or not to believe O'Toolis, as much of his account of his travels seems incorrect. [Taken from vhpa.org]