THE WALL OF FACES

Some may think you are forgotten
Though on earth you are no more
But in our memory you are with us
As you always were before….

Never forgotten.

HOOAH

Dear Cap. Rafael Rivera-Balaguer, Thank you for your service as a Tactical Aircraft Pilot. Your 88th birthday just passed, happy birthday. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. The 20th anniversary of 9/11 is this weekend. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

My uncle Rafael will never be forgotten. I was just 13 when we lost him...I remember as if it was yesterday the call coming in one last summer's night that his plan was missing. Weeks later we buried him in Arlington National Cemetery with a 21 gun salute.

On June 9, 1967, a USAF C-130B Hercules (#58-0737) from the 29th Troop Carrier Squadron, crashed approximately 12 miles east of Tan Son Nhut, RVN. The C-130B, with ten persons aboard, was conducting a series of scheduled logistics flights within South Vietnam. The last leg of the trip was from Nha Trang to Saigon. As the aircraft neared Saigon it was vectored around an artillery firing zone. The aircraft broke up in flight, with both wings separating from the fuselage, and crashed. It was assumed that the structural failure resulted from ground fire. There were no survivors. The lost crew included pilot CAPT Rafael L. Rivera-Balaguer, co-pilot CAPT Jerome F. Starkweather, navigator CAPT Richard W. Podell, loadmaster SSGT Ricky L. Herndon, and flight engineers SSGT Ira E. Scott and SSGT William E. Tyree. Its passengers (all U.S. Army) were 1LT Richard A. Gray, SP5 Frank R. Ragusa, SP4 Craig R. Schoenbaum, and SP5 Andrew H. Shimp. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and aviation-safety.net]