Historical facts about the Vietnam war

VIETNAM HELICOPTER CREW MEMBERS ASSOCIATION
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Here is some more facts about the Vietnam war.
American and Australian Civilian and Military Women Who Died in the Viet Nam War (1959-1975)


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Military
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U.S. Army --



*       2nd Lt. Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba

*       2nd Lt. Elizabeth Ann Jones

Lt. Drazba and Lt. Jones were assigned to the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon.
They died in a helicopter crash near Saigon, February 18, 1966. Drazba was
from Dunmore, PA, Jones from Allendale, SC. Both were 22 years old.

*       Capt. Eleanor Grace Alexander

*       1st Lt. Hedwig Diane Orlowski

Capt. Alexander of Westwood, NJ, and Lt. Orlowski of Detroit, MI, died
November 30, 1967. Alexander, stationed at the 85th Evac., and Orlowski,
stationed at the 67th Evac. in Qui Nhon, had been sent to a hospital in
Pleiku to help out during a push. With them when their plane crashed on the
return trip to Qui Nhon were two other nurses, Jerome E. Olmstead of
Clintonville, WI, and Kenneth R. Shoemaker, Jr. of Owensboro, KY. Alexander
was 27, Orlowski 23. Both were posthumously awarded Bronze Stars.

*       2nd Lt. Pamela Dorothy Donovan

Lt. Donovan, from Allston, MA, became seriously ill and died on July 8,
1968. She was assigned to the 85th Evac. in Qui Nhon. She was 26 years old.

*       1st Lt. Sharon Ann Lane

Lt. Lane died from shrapnel wounds when the 312th Evac. at Chu Lai was hit
by rockets on June 8, 1969. From Canton, OH, she was a month short of her
26th birthday. She was posthumously awarded the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross
with Palm and the Bronze Star for Heroism. In 1970, the recovery room at
Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, where Lt. Lane had been assigned
before going to Viet Nam, was dedicated in her honor. In 1973, Aultman
Hospital in Canton, OH, where Lane had attended nursing school, erected a
bronze statue of Lane. The names of 110 local servicemen killed in Vietnam
are on the base of the statue.

*       Lt. Col. Annie Ruth Graham, Chief Nurse at 91st Evac. Hospital, Tuy Hoa

Lt. Col. Graham, from Efland, NC, suffered a stroke in August 14, 1968 and
was evacuated to Japan where she died four days later. A veteran of both
World War II and Korea, she was 52.


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U.S. Air Force --



*       Capt. Mary Therese Klinker

Capt. Klinker, a flight nurse assigned to Clark Air Base in the
Philippines, was on the C-5A Galaxy which crashed on April 4 outside Saigon
while evacuating Vietnamese orphans. This is known as the Operation
Babylift crash. From Lafayette, IN, she was 27. She was posthumously
awarded the Airman's Medal for Heroism and the Meritorious Service Medal.


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Australian Nurse Corps --



*       Barbara Black

Barbara died at Vung Tau, Vietnam in 1971.



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Civilian
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American Red Cross --



*       Hannah Crews

Died in a jeep accident, Bien Hoa, 1969.

*       Virginia Kirsch

Murdered by U.S. soldier in Cu Chi, 1970.

*       Lucinda Richter

Died of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Cam Ranh Bay, 1971.


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Army Special Services --



*       Rosalyn Muskat

Died in a jeep accident, Bien Hoa, 1968.

*       Dorothy Phillips

Died in a plane crash, Qui Nhon, 1967.


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U.S. Department of the Navy OICC (Officer in Charge of Construction) --



*       Regina "Reggie" Williams

Died of a heart attack in Saigon, 1964.


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Catholic Relief Services --



*       Gloria Redlin

Shot to death in Pleiku, 1969.


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Central Intelligence Agency --



*       Barbara Robbins

Died when a car bomb exploded outside the American Embassy, Saigon, March
30, 1965.



*       Betty Gebhardt

Died in Saigon, 1971.


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United States Agency for International Development --



*       Marilyn L. Allan

Murdered by a U.S. soldier in Nha Trang, August 16, 1967.




*       Dr. Breen Ratterman (American Medical Association)

Died from injuries suffered in a fall from her apartment balcony in Saigon,
October 2, 1969


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Journalists --



*       Georgette "Dickey" Chappelle

Killed by a mine on patrol with Marines outside Chu Lai, 1965.

*       Phillipa Schuyler

Killed in a firefight, Da Nang, 1966.


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Missionaries --



*       Carolyn Griswald

Killed in raid on leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet 1968.

*       Janie A. Makil

Shot to death in an ambush, Dalat, 1963. Janie was five months old.

*       Ruth Thompson

Killed in raid on leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet 1968.

*       Ruth Wilting

Killed in raid on leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet 1968.


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POW/MIA --



*       Evelyn Anderson

Captured and burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972.
Remains recovered and returned to U.S.

*       Beatrice Kosin

Captured and burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972.
Remains recovered and returned to U.S.

*       Betty Ann Olsen

Captured during raid on leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet 1968. Died
in 1968 and was buried somewhere along Ho Chi Minh Trail by fellow POW,
Michael Benge. Remains not recovered.

*       Eleanor Ardel Vietti

Captured at leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot, May 30, 1962.
Still listed as POW.


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Operation Babylift --


The following women were killed in the crash, outside Saigon, of the C5-A
Galaxy transporting Vietnamese children out of the country on April 4,
1975. All of the women were working for various U.S. government agencies in
Saigon at the time of their deaths with the exception of Theresa Drye (a
child) and Laurie Stark (a teacher). Sharon Wesley had previously worked
for both the American Red Cross and Army Special Services. She chose to
stay on in Vietnam after the pullout of U.S. military forces in 1973.

*       Barbara Adams

*       Clara Bayot

*       Nova Bell

*       Arleta Bertwell

*       Helen Blackburn

*       Ann Bottorff

*       Celeste Brown

*       Vivienne Clark

*       Juanita Creel

*       Mary Ann Crouch

*       Dorothy Curtiss

*       Twila Donelson

*       Helen Drye

*       Theresa Drye

*       Mary Lyn Eichen

*       Elizabeth Fugino

*       Ruthanne Gasper

*       Beverly Herbert

*       Penelope Hindman

*       Vera Hollibaugh

*       Dorothy Howard

*       Barbara Kauvulia

*       Barbara Maier

*       Rebecca Martin

*       Sara Martini

*       Martha Middlebrook

*       Katherine Moore

*       Marta Moschkin

*       Marion Polgrean

*       June Poulton

*       Joan Pray

*       Sayonna Randall

*       Anne Reynolds

*       Marjorie Snow

*       Laurie Stark

*       Barbara Stout

*       Doris Jean Watkins

*       Sharon Wesley



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59 civilians
9 military
--
68 total

    OPERATION BABYLIFT - THE FLIGHT...

The plane, a C-5A 'Galaxy', was carrying 243 children, 44 escorts, 16
crewmen and 2 flight nurses.  These numbers vary according to which news
articles you read as totals vary between 305 to 319 on-board.  Eight
members of the Air Force crew perished in the crash.  The plane was enroute
to Travis AFB in California.

Most of those who perished were in the lowest of three levels in what was
then the largest aircraft in the world.  A survivor of the crash stated:
"Some of us got out through a chute from the top of the plane, but the
children (and escorts) at the bottom of the plane didn't have a chance."

Air Force Sgt. Jim Hadley, a medical technician from Sacramento, Calif
recalled later that oxygen masks dropped down automatically, but the
children were sitting two to a seat and there weren't enough masks to go
around.  "We had to keep moving them from kid to kid."

In a early report the U.S. embassy indicated possibly 100 of the children
and 10 to 15 adults survived, including the pilot.  At least 50 of the
children were in the lower cargo level of the plane.

The Galaxy had taken-off from Tan Son Nhut airbase and had reached an
altitude of approximately 23,000 feet and was approximately 40 miles from
Saigon when it's rear clamshell cargo doors blew off crippling its flight
controls.

In what was described as a "massive explosive decompression" near
Vung Tau, the pilot lost control of his flaps, elevators & rudder.  The
pilot, with only the use of his throttles and ailerons, was able to turn
the giant plane back towards Tan Son Nhut.

At 5,000 feet Capt. Dennis Traynor, determined that he was unable to reach
the runway safely with the crippled plane and set it down approximately
2 miles north of the airport to avoid crashing in a heavily-populated area
where it broke into three pieces and exploded.  The fact that many did
survive such a crash was indeed a result of his flying ability.  A Pentagon
spokesman at the time commented on Capt. Traynor's efforts to bring the
aircraft in safely as "a remarkable demonstration of flying skill."
Victor Ubach, a Pan American World Airways pilot who was flying behind and
above the crippled Air Force plane said the C-5A pilots "had done one heck
of a job" to avoid a worse disaster.

South Vietnamese sources said three militiamen on the ground were killed
when the airplane fell.

At first it was thought the crash may have been attributed to sabotage but
later ruled-out by the USAF.  The crash investigation was headed by
Maj. Gen. Warner E. Newby.  The flight-recorder was recovered by a Navy
diver on 7 Apr 1975 from the bottom of the South China Sea.  A Pentagon
spokesman said the plane had undergone minor repairs to its radio and
windshield in the Philippines before flying to Saigon but added that had
nothing to do with the crash.

At the time the USAF had taken delivery of 81 Galaxy's.  Wing problems had
plagued this immense cargo plane but were not considered a factor in this
incident.  In spite of it's wing problems this was only the second crash
of a C-5A after over 190,000 combined flying hours by the USAF but the
first crash resulting in loss-of-life.  Two other C-5A's were previously
destroyed in a fire while on the ground.  Representative Les Aspin and
Senator William Proxmire immediately urged the Air Force to ground the
remaining 77 C-5A's, pointing to the continuing problem of weak wings.

By 8 Apr, Operation Baby Lift had resumed with the arrival of 56 orphans
to the U.S.  At the time of the crash over 18,000 orphans were being
processed for evacuation from South Vietnam for adoption in the U.S. and
other countries.  Over 25,000 orphans were in South Vietnam in April of
1975.

We compiled these facts from AP & UPI articles that appeared in the
Seattle Times, Seattle P-I and New York Times from 4 April to 8 April of
1975.

Authors

Roger Young - Vietnam Veteran
Pam Young - Vietnam-Era Veteran
NOTE: The VHCMA want to express our thanks to Pam and Roger Young for their research and permission to add this information to our site.
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