THE WALL OF FACES

SEMPER FI

Remember to save for them a place inside of you, and save one backward glance when you are leaving, for the places they can no longer go...

Dear SMsgt Gary Pate, Thank you for your service as an Aircraft Loadmaster Tech. I am glad you were identified in 2009, WELCOME HOME. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is Holy Thursday and Passover. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

On May 22, 1968, a U.S. Air Force C-130A Hercules (#56-0477) from the 817th Tactical Airlift Squadron (crewed by members of the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron) departed Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand on a Blind Bat nighttime flare-dropping mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Radio contact was lost with the aircraft while it was over Savannakhet Province, Laos, near the city of Muong Nong, where it was thought to have crashed as other aircraft reported seeing a large fire in the area. No search and rescue was initiated because of the lack of any confirmation of survivors. An electronic search of the area was made for evidence of survivors with negative results. After the Hercules did not return to friendly control, the eight crewmen and one passenger were declared Missing in Action from the time of its estimated fuel exhaustion. There was no further word of the aircraft or its crew. The lost crewmen included pilot COL William H. Mason, co-pilot MAJ Thomas B. Mitchell, navigator MAJ William T. McPhail, flight engineer SSGT Calvin C. Glover, loadmaster SMSG Gary Pate, flare handler CMSG John Q. Adam, and crewmen CMSG Melvin D. Rash and AM1 Thomas E. Knebel. LTC Jerry L. Chambers was listed as the passenger on board the flight. In 2009, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command team conducted a field recovery effort at the suspected crash site which led to a June 2010 U.S. Department of Defense announcement that the remains of the nine U.S. service members had been accounted for and returned to their families. A group remains burial for the crew took place on June 10, 2010, at Arlington National Cemetery. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, aviation-safety.net, c-130.net, and pownetwork.org]

I have a bracelet reading--- SMSgt GARY PATE
USAF 22 MAY 68 Laos
Bracelet was found in a box of old jewelry purchased at a flea market in North Carolina.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE SIR. GOD BLESS YOUR FAMILY.