David Allan Poley
Chief Warrant Officer
B CO, 101ST AVN BN, 160TH AVN GROUP, 101ST ABN DIV, USARV Army of the United States Philadelphia, Pennsylvania May 19, 1946 to March 09, 1969 DAVID A POLEY is on the Wall at Panel W30, Line 94 |
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Frank Tresenrider
Kingsmen lost on 9 March 1969: |
The photo and following article is taken from The Philadelphia Daily News, special supplement entitled 'SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTY,' October 26, 1987. The special supplement was issued in conjunction with the dedication of the Philadelphia Viet Nam Memorial.
From a native Philadelphian and Marine, |
Notes from The Virtual WallOn 09 March 1969, UH-1H tail number 66-17121 of B Company, 101st Aviation Battalion, was conducting a resupply mission into the USMC Fire Support Base Winchester, located atop a ridgeline west of FSB Russell near the Demilitarized Zone. According to the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots' Association database, 66-17121 was crewed by
"While attempting to resupply a Marine FSB (Winchester) I observed Dave enter the clouds crossing a ridgeline. I advised Dave that I could not follow him; he radioed to wait for him. That was the last call. Three days later I found the wreckage."and the second is from WO1 Edward C. Ragan, also of B/101st Avn Bn: "At the time the ship went down they were trying to get badly needed supplies to a radio relay station which was their only contact with the [LRRP] team in the field. The relay station was just South of the DMZ on top of a mountain. The mountain top was closed in by the clouds and Dave and Dan had made several attempts to land without success. My understanding is that they were trying to hover up the side of the mountain to reach the station when the radio crew heard a large amount of gun fire from the bad guys answered from the helicopter, then an explosion. No one knows for sure exactly how the ship went down only that it took several days to find it in the jungle. ...As noted by WO Roach, the burned-out wreckage was located on 12 Mar 69 and the bodies of the five men eventually were recovered. While the VHPA account does not identify the USMC bellyman, only one Marine was killed in action as a result of a helicopter shootdown on 09 March 1969:
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