Missing in Action since January 10, 1970
(Note: Records differs as to the aircraft type on this incident. Some records show the aircraft type this crew was flying as UH1H, and some show it as a UH1C. Herbert Crosby flew Charlie models every day from at least July 1969 to January 1970. The serial number, #66-739 correlates to a C model, the first two numbers indicating that the aircraft had been made in 1966, and the H model only had come out a few months before this time. Although C models were gunships, and usually flew more or less independently, while this aircraft was flying in tight formation as flight lead, which would correlate with the H model, it has been confirmed that the ship on which this crew was flying was definitely a Charlie model.)
At 1300 hours, the three helicopters departed Tien Phuoc. Five to ten minutes later, due to instrument flight rules, Capt. Crosby directed the flight to change to a different flight heading. When the helicopters changed frequencies to contact Chu Lai ground control approach, radio contact was lost with Capt. Crosby and was not regained.
The other two aircraft reached Chu Lai heliport, and at 1400 hours, serach efforts were begun for the missing aircraft, although the crew was not found.
According to a 1974 National League of Families report, George Howes survived the crash of this helicopter. The report further maintains that the loss occurred in Laos, although the coordinates place it some 40-odd miles from that country.
A North Vietnamese prisoner released later reported that he had seen Howes in captivity the same month the helicopter went down. A second sighting by a villager in Phuoc Chouc (or Phouc Chau) village reported Howes and two other POWs stopped for water at his house in February, 1970, en route to Laos. Whether these reports also relate to Allen, Crosby and Graziosi, is unknown.
If still alive, some MIAs are now in their 70s... They don't have much time left.
We have to demand the answers from the bureaucrats, and keep standing on their necks (figuratively speaking) until they get the message that THEY work for US, and that we are serious about getting these long overdue responses!
Diplomatic considerations aside... We can no longer allow questionable protocols established by pseudo-aristocratic armchair strategists, to determine or influence the fate of the men who were in the trenches while the diplomats were sharing sherry and canapes and talking about "Their Plans" for the future of SE Asia.
If you'd like to see what some others are doing in addition to writing their congressmen, senators, and the Whitehouse, check out some of these sites:
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