THE WALL OF FACES

Captain Larry Dean Baldwin, Served with the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 7th Battalion, 11th Artillery Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, United States Army Vietnam.

Thank you for your service and your sacrifice. Thank you for stepping up and answering your country's call. Rest easy knowing you will never be forgotten.

On March 22, 1969, a U.S. Army helicopter OH-6A “Loach” (tail number 67-16109) from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, was shot down in Tay Ninh Province, RVN, after receiving hostile ground fire. Two passengers aboard were killed, and the pilot was rescued. The early afternoon flight originated from Tay Ninh West (Combat Base) next to Nu Bai Den (Black Virgin) Mountain. The helicopter landed at FSB Mohawk to drop off a passenger, a Battalion combat correspondent. He exited the right rear of the aircraft and was replaced by CPT Larry D. Baldwin, a Battalion artillery liaison officer and forward observer. In the front right seat was LTC Albert C. Butler, the Commanding Officer for 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry. The pilot (name unknown) was in the front left seat. Five minutes after arriving at Mohawk, the Loach was airborne again, embarking on a Command & Control flight. The aircraft headed northeast, its mission to check on some reported movement or other intelligence. Approximately ten minutes after it departed, significant radio chatter began to emit from the 25th Infantry net from a Mayday distress call. A rescue/reaction force consisting of three armored personnel carriers was sent out from Mohawk to investigate. They soon found the crashed Loach and the bodies of Baldwin and Butler. The pilot was not immediately located. After about 30 minutes of searching, he was recovered in shock but uninjured. Crash investigators later determined the helicopter was hit by ground fire, possibly .51 caliber, crippling the Loach when it received damage to its tail rotor. The investigators reported Baldwin was killed in flight after suffering a fatal head wound, and Butler died on impact. After their remains were recovered, they were taken to a small morgue attached to the 45th Surgical Hospital at Tay Ninh West. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by Roger Welt (August 2018)]

DEAR CAPTAIN BALDWIN,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE AS A NUCLEAR QUALIFIED FIELD ARTILLERY UNIT COMMANDER. ARTILLERYMEN WILL ALWAYS BE SPECIAL TO ME. TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY, AND I FEEL IT IS IMPORTANT TO HONOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DIED IN SERVICE TO THIS NATION. AND VETERANS' DAY IS APPROACHING, MAY THE SAINTS AND ANGELS GUIDE YOU. REST IN PEACE.

It was always a shock to learn of Larry's death, especially over 20 years after his helicopter was shot down in Vietnam. I transferred out of Mission High to SLO Sr. High my sophomore year, the same year Larry left for Salinas. This photo of Larry is from his '55 Mission High yearbook his junior year. Larry was classmates with Karen Corda-Adler, Allen Ochs, Judi Romo-Goffstein, Eddie Riehl, Ronnie Hannah, Jimmy and Judy Lucas, Wayne Parent, Martha Torigiani, the late Tony Bodine and others. Two other Mission Jr. High classmates of mine were USAF fighter pilots in Vietnam, the late Capt. Alec Kelley (d. Sept. 2008) and George McKenna who lives in Florida. I helped Kelley install a display of his flight suite and his father's WW I uniform in the Central Coast Veteran's Museum in the basement of the Vet's Memorial Bldg in San Luis Obispo.) A San Jose State ATO fraternity brother POW Carl "Dennis" Chambers was shot down and survived 5-1/2 years in the Hanoi "Hilton". I have just now learned that Larry is buried in the Los Osos Memorial Park a few miles north of San Luis Obispo. I occasionally drive by there on my way to Morro Bay from Pismo Beach. I'll stop and leave some flowers on my next trip.