Information on U.S. Air Force helicopter HH-53B tail number 66-14434
Date: 01/28/1970 MIA-POW file reference number: 1552
Incident number: 70012850.KIA
Unit: 40 ARRS
Laos
UTM grid coordinates: WF582048
Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Defense Intelligence Agency Reference Notes. Defense Intelligence Agency Helicopter Loss database. Also: 1552 ()
Loss to Inventory
Crew Members:
C SMS PRUETT WILLIAM DAVID BNR
C SSG SHINN WILLIAM CHARLES BNR
C MSG SUTTON WILLIAM CARL BNR
P CPT LEESER LEONARD CHARLES BNR
P MAJ BELL HOLLY GENE KIA
Passengers and/or other participants:
SSG ANDERSON GREGORY LEE, AF, PK, BNR
REFNO Synopsis:
North Vietnam Holly G. Bell
Gregory L. Anderson
William D. Pruett
Leonard C. Leeser
William C. Shinn
William C. Sutton
(1552)
On January 28, 1970, an HH-53B with six crewmen on board was in a
holding pattern while engaged in a search and rescue mission over
Ha Tinh Province. There was a MIG alert on the radio after which
a MIG-21 aircraft fired an air to air missile which hit the HH-53B.
There was a fireball explosion which turned the aircraft into
hundreds of pieces. There was one two second beeper after the
explosion but there were no parachutes seen by other SAR aircrews
covering the SAR effort. The crew of the helicopter was declared
killed in action, body not recovered, in April 1970. Returning
U.S. POWs had no information on their precise fate.
In December 1988, Vietnam returned William Sutton's identity card
and remains from Huong Khe District, Nghe Tinh Province it
identified as those of William Sutton. The remains were determined
to be of Holly G. Bell.
This record was last updated on 05/25/1998
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
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Date posted on this site: 09/07/2007
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