Billy Stanley Armstrong
Petty Officer Second Class
PCF-19, COSDIV 12, TF 115, USNAVFORV
United States Navy
West Helena, Arkansas
May 28, 1939 to June 16, 1968
BILLY S ARMSTRONG is on the Wall at Panel W57, Line 34

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Combat Action Ribbon
 
Billy S Armstrong
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03 Oct 2002

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REMEMBERED

Terry Boone
mtboone@aol.com

 
23 May 2005

I am a student in a history of Vietnam class and I would just like to extend my appreciation for your sacrifice. You will not be forgotten.

From
Wesley Garrett
E-mail address is not available.


 

Notes from The Virtual Wall

On the night of 16 June 1968, PCF-19 was cruising on a routine patrol offshore northern South Vietnam. A sudden explosion rocked, then sunk, the small ship. Four of its crewmen were lost that night: Lieutenant (junior grade) John Davis, who commanded PCF-19, and crewman John Anderegg were the only two survivors. Anderegg had kept Bowman's head above water until he determined that Bowman was dead; he then turned his attention to the badly wounded Davis.

There was no certainty about how it happened - some said the PCF was attacked by North Vietnamese helicopters while others believed that a friendly aircraft had attacked the boat by accident. Eventually the US Air Force concluded that one of its aircraft had attacked the swift boat, believing it to be a North Vietnamese PT boat - a "friendly fire" incident.

What was certain was that four men had died, and that two had not been recovered. On 6 October 1993, an armbone fragment was recovered from a grave ashore; a Vietnamese fisherman stated that he had recovered the bone and buried it. It was almost 8 years before the fragment could be positively identified through DNA testing, but once done there was another certainty: Tony Chandler had come home.

All that remained of Petty Officer Chandler was buried in the Centerville (Georgia) City Cemetery on 16 June 2001 - a sailor finally home from the sea.


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