THE WALL OF FACES

David is buried at Edgewood Cemetery, Jacksonville, Duval County, FL.

The aircraft suffered a tail rotor strike departing a ship in Da Nang Harbor with a high ranking ARVN General. Two crewmen, aircraft commander WO1 William A. Gunnells and gunner SP4 David E. Clarke were killed in the crash. The pilot and crew chief were rescued. Five passengers also lost their lives, including COL Albert W. Smarr and MAJ William J. Morgan. MAJ Morgan’s remains were never recovered. Three Vietnamese passengers also died in the crash. A sixth passenger, an Army major, was rescued. There are three further accounts of this incident: #1 - MAJ William J. Morgan was a passenger aboard a UH1H helicopter (tail #69-15391) that crashed in the Da Nang Harbor on February 25, 1972. The helicopter was recovered on March 17, 1972 and all personnel aboard the aircraft were accounted for except MAJ Morgan. It was concluded that his body drifted from the aircraft and either out to sea or to the beaches of nearby Mui Da Nang Island. A further search at the main harbor was not feasible, and MAJ Morgan was listed as dead, remains non-recoverable. No enemy action is associated with the loss. Search and recovery efforts in Vietnam were the best and most successful ever seen in wartime. They were so successful, in fact, that the numbers of those remaining missing in action were dramatically reduced over previous wars. #2 - Upon lift off from the destroyer helipad, the helicopter executed a right pedal turn causing the tail rotor to impact the guard rail on the next higher deck. Impact caused the tail rotor to separate from the aircraft and strike the main rotor, which in turn severed the tail boom. The helicopter crashed in the water inverted and sank. Four of the ten personnel aboard exited the helicopter. One was struck by the main rotor and killed. Three were recovered by swimmers from the destroyer. #3 - I was on the USS Craig (February 25, 1972) when the slick, 68-15391, from the 62nd Assault Helicopter Company took off, had a tail strike, and crashed in the DaNang harbor, killing one pilot, WO1 William A. Gunnells, and one crew member, SP4 David E Clarke. I was taking pictures (the film was confiscated by the accident board) and remember it pretty well. (From Mark Attebury, March 1997) [Taken from vhpa.org]

FOREVER REMEMBERED

"If you are able, 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.....Be not ashamed to say you loved them....
Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own....And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heros you left behind...."

Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell
KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and Killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.

We Nam Brothers pause to give a backward glance, and post this remembrance to you, one of the gentle heros lost to the War in Vietnam:

Slip off that pack. Set it down by the crooked trail. Drop your steel pot alongside. Shed those magazine-ladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul ... and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother.

From your Nam-Band-Of-Brothers

I am a student at Gridley High School in Gridley Illinois and as a U.S. History project, my class and others are trying to post remembrances to all of the soldiers who have no remembrances on this monument. It is important to me, not only as an assignment, but as a duty that every soldier who may seem forgotten, but never will be, is recognized. I would like to thank you for all you have given us, with the deepest and sincerest thank you.