THE WALL OF FACES

Met Allyson on flight from Honolulu to Saigon in 1967. Processed in country at Long Binh for 4 days. My orders were changed from being assigned to Pleiku (Central Highlands) to Tay Ninh (III Corp) while Allyson's was to Vung Tau. On the day of departure he rode an fixed wing aircraft (Otter) to Vung Tau and I got on a helicopter to my assigned base. I got his address in Honolulu where I was to write his parents and get his address in Vung Tau so I could correspond with him. Upon writing the letter to his parents I received a response letter informing me that his plane had crashed on that day and he was killed. I was asked by his parents to detail his final days. I hope the letter I wrote helped his parents find closure in a war so far away and in such a confusing period of our lives.

War drew us from our homeland
In the sunlit springtime of our youth.
Those who did not come back alive remain
in perpetual springtime -- forever young --
And a part of them is with us always.

Never forgotten.

HOOAH

Dear Pvt Allyson Sasaki, Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. It is sad that you passed on your first day in Vietnam. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is Advent. Time moves quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

On November 22, 1967, a U.S. Army DeHavilland U-1A Otter (#57-6119) fixed-wing aircraft from the 54th Aviation Company crashed and burned on takeoff from runway east at Long Binh Army Airfield in Bien Hoa Province, RVN. The accident occurred as the Otter was leaving the airstrip when it hit a cable that was strung on a crane next to the runway. The pilot lost control of the plane and crashed. Personnel nearby heard the crash and came running, but the would-be rescuers had trouble approaching the wreck as it was totally engulfed. A total of nine U.S. personnel would die as a result of this accident. SP4 Thomas B. Allen, the crew chief on the flight, died in the crash along with passengers PVT Sheldon D. Bowler, PFC Marshall F. Freng, PFC Steven P. Morse, and PVT Allyson Y. Sasaki. Two other passengers, SP4 Woodrow D. Adler, a courier for Headquarters & Headquarters Company (HHC), 222nd Aviation Battalion, and PFC David L. Tasker, died four days later from burns they suffered in the accident. Military records regarding this incident listed two persons as the pilot of the aircraft. One of them, CW2 David A. Kreitzer, is the probable pilot as he served with the 54th Aviation Company and reportedly flew U-1 Otters during his first tour of Vietnam. Kreitzer succumbed on December 2, 1967, to burn injuries he suffered in the crash. The second pilot listed, MAJ Larry G. Powell, was a rotary wing (helicopter) pilot from the 45th Medical Company. Powell reportedly died after being evacuated to the U.S. Military burn unit at the 106th General Hospital in Yokohama, Japan. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, vvmf.org, and thewall-usa.com, and information provided by Don Yaxley (May 2018)]