THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us....

On the remembrance of your 70th birthday, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

HOOAH

Ken, I remember you from flight school. You and so many in our class died in that tragic war. So we can have sneakers and tee shirts made there today? We were in country barely a month when you and a couple other friends from flight school died. I am not sure why I survived. What God has in mind for me, because it still has not happened yet that I know of. I pray for your family

I have never forgot you.

On May 18, 1970, a U.S. Army helicopter UH-1H (tail number 68-16375) from Company C, 158th Aviation Battalion, was flying a resupply mission in the FSB Ripcord area in Thua Thien province, RVN, when the aircraft was hit by enemy ground fire and attempted to make a forced landing on a landing zone, crashed, and rolled down a hill into a canopy covered area. Three crewmen and two passengers were killed in the incident. The crew chief was able to jump from the aircraft prior to impact and was found on an adjacent ridge at 2:00 PM the following day. He was rescued by an aircraft from Company A, 101st Aviation Battalion, which was on a mission for the 501st Signal Battalion. The injured crewmember had no knowledge of the exact location of the aircraft or the other crewmembers. He had hidden the night before in a shell crater and drank rainwater which had collected in the crater. On May 19th, an Aerial Rifle Platoon from Troop B, 2nd Squadron (Airmobile), 17th Cavalry, was inserted to conduct a search for the aircraft. The platoon was unsuccessful in locating the helicopter and was extracted prior to darkness. The aircraft was eventually located, possibly on May 31st. The lost crewmen were aircraft commander WO1 Nicholas G. Saunders, pilot WO1 Robert K. Cole, and gunner SGT Carlton C. Gray. The two passengers were SP4 Harry J. Stone and 1LT John E. Darling Jr. Darling was the 2nd Infantry Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment Communications Officer. Darling and Stone had hitched a ride on the helicopter to go repair another unit’s radio. After being found, the bodies of Cole, Saunders, and Gray were sling-loaded back to Camp Evans. During the flight, Cole's body bag opened and his body dropped to the earth. It was later recovered by troops from LZ Ripcord who had been ordered to search for the body and found it. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, phoenix158.org, and Lessons Learned, Headquarters, 101st Airborne Division, period ending July 31, 1970]