THE WALL OF FACES

Dear Cap. Joseph Nolan, Thank you for your service as a Rotary Wing Aviation Unit Commander - Helicopter Pilot. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It’s a New Year, but not necessarily better. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Today I had met your siblings, Patsy had told us of you, so we may remember you. I wish for you to return home.

To my brother Joe, You are there we, are here. The problem with that, is the gap is to big. We need to close that gap, narrow the search, find the person who knows exactly where you, my brother, are. We want you home. Back in the U.S.A.

So so sad, he should have not died so young.

Here I am in Ireland tracing his ancestors from Counties Kilkenny and Carlow, Ireland.

On May 16, 1971, pilot CAPT Joseph P. Nolan, aircraft commander CWO Craig L. Farlow, crew chief SP5 Elliott Crook, and door gunner SP4 Timothy J. Jacobsen comprised the crew of a UH-1H helicopter (tail number 68-15491) from A Company, 101st Aviation Group, conducting a combat assault insertion of ARVN Marines into a landing zone (LZ) in the vicinity of Hue, Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam. CAPT Nolan's helicopter, call sign Chalk 7, was the seventh to land on the LZ. On departing the LZ, pilots of the fifth and sixth helicopters stated that they were taking enemy fire. CAPT Nolan radioed after touchdown that he was taking heavy ground fire and that his crew chief was wounded. CAPT Nolan immediately took off and at 250 feet, witnesses saw his aircraft rapidly lose rotor RPM and crash into the tree tops, bursting into flames. No survivors were seen to exit the aircraft. On May 24, a search and recovery team made a ground search and found 2 partial skulls and one partial right foot, all badly burned. It was also noted that there were four more possible remains that were trapped under the heavy wreckage. The partial skulls were later determined to be Vietnamese. The other remains were not recovered because of hostile fire. The crew of the UH-1H was presumed to be dead, and their bodies were never recovered. They were listed with honor among the nearly 2500 Americans missing in Southeast Asia at the end of the war. A year and a day later, May 17, 1972, the U.S. government officially declared the crewmen Dead/Body Not Recovered. [Taken from pownetwork.org and virtualwall.org]