My grandson, my wife, and I visiting the Moving Wall. The picture says it all for me. He and his dad are why I served. Now I know and I am proud.
The good news is the Government has finally identified William Authur Kimsey's remains and we are planning his homecoming and burial for sometime in August of this year. As you know this has been a terrible 30 plus years, but now we will be able to put our beloved brother to rest with the honorable burial he deserves.
If there are any men who were KIA or MIA or POW in RVN who were members of the 220th RAC and are not listed, please send me their names to be entered on this page.
1968 Content-Type: text/plain Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 08:49:25 PST
I hope you can help me. I'm a member of Operation Just Cause (support for those still listed as MIA/POW/KIA in hope of bringing them home...either alive or their remains). I'm looking for someone who was a member of 220th Recon Aviation Company, 17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade around the 21st of January, 1968 (more specifically around the coordinates of 170013N
1070543E (YD230810) in North Vietnam who knew W3 William Kimsey, Jr. (these are his last known coordinates before he was downed with Marine Cpt Charles J. Ramsey, aerial observer.)
MIAs: Cpt Hugh "Mac" Byrd, Jan 9 1969. Lost out towards Khe Sanh and Laos. Maj Donald Lee Harrison, shot down over the DMZ Oct 68. (I think it was the day before the bombing halt and flying up north.)
Sent in by Sarge Means & Grayson Davis
Name: Hugh McNeil Byrd, Jr.
Rank/Branch: O3/US Army
Unit: 220th Aviation Company, 212th Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade
Date of Birth: 22 October 1943 (Pueblo CO)
Home City of Record: Berea KY
Date of Loss: 09 January 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 162816N 1070200E (YD170220)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: O1G
Other Personnel In Incident: Kevin O'Brien (missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: On January 9, 1969, Capt. Hugh Byrd, pilot, and 1Lt. Kevin O'Brien, observer, were on a visual reconnaissance mission over the Khe Sanh area of South Vietnam in an O1G Bird Dog aircraft, tail #51-5059. Byrd's aircraft flew from the 220th Aviation Company, 212th Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade. O'Brian's job as observer from HHC, 2nd Battalion, 94th Artillery, was to identify artillery targets. The plane diverted to assist a aissance team that was in enemy contact in the Khe Sanh area.
After aiding the team and being relieved by another aircraft, Byrd headed his plane back to Phu Bai. The weather was bad and the pilot reported at 1940 hours that that he was lost and the weather was worsening. The aircraft was not equipped to fly instrument in meteorological conditions. Dong Ha and other radar controllers tried to get a fix on the Bird Dog, and were able to constant radio contact, but were able only to get an imprecise Based on the direction the aircraft told them it was flying, the radar station advised it to climb because of mountains in the area. No
further transmissions were heard. merous searches were initiated following the disappearance of the aircraft, but were broken off after a few days due to weather conditions.
When searches were resumed when the weather cleared, they failed to locate any wreckage. Byrd and O'Brien were declared Missing In Action.
In August 1975, in the presumed crash area, a refugee reported seeing 2 downed U.S. aircraft which he described as one F5 jet and one L19. He was told that 2 Americans on the L19 were killed and buried 1 kilometer from the crash. The Army feels this report could possibly relate to Byrd and O'Brien. (The O1 was formerly known as L19.) Many authorities believe, based on thousands of refugee reports, that
hundreds of Americans are still alive, held captive in Southeast Asia. If Byrd and O'Brien are among them is unknown. Dead or alive, they are in enemy hands. It's time to bring these men home.
One
of the guys who got killed while I was there was W2 Larrie
Landersheim. He was killed while a passenger on a C&C Huey
belonging to the Special Forces out of the Mai Loc camp. They were
hit with an RPG-7 and lost the tail rotor. Everyone aboard was
lost.
WO
Louis Keeven was killed during a flight up toward Quang Tri. The
plane was landed by the rear seater. The only information on him I
had was from the site POW/MIA and ther wall.
Steven Badger
WO Ron Ferro, Pilot Quang Ngai, to your roster. he was killed in a mid air in 1966. A stage field at Ft Stewart is named afer him.
1Lt Arnie Roeback. Pilot Quang Ngai, 65-66 Died of Lukimia in 2001.
A Cat Killer who was shot down just prior to my coming to the 220th. His name is Captain Paul Jennings Bates, Jr.; shot down in the DMZ area 08-10-71, coordinates 165158N1064301E. All I know was he and his back seater went down, crashing up under some trees. Initial search of the area by an OH-6 crew turned up nothing. The Aircraft was intact and not burning but nobody was seen from the hovering OH-6. A short time later the aircraft burned. That's all I remember. I went to the POW/MIA database (http://www.icweb2.loc.gov/pow/powhome.html) and found him listed there. I don't know who was back seater was.
Dick Wells
There was an E-5 from the 220th killed in Da Nang in
1968 I think, while asleep in the transit hooch. He was in Da Nang to
go to finance and the 212th got hit with a rocket. Several men were
wounded from the company. I can't remember many of the detalis, but
someone reading this might. If so, let me know please. I was notified
that this was Roulette, Sp. 5.
Scott
