Friday, May 12, 1972
Chinook Crash Kills 32 GIs Near Saigon
SAIGON (AP) --A big U.S. Army helicopter on a noncombat flight crashed in flames 20 miles northeast of Saigon Wednesday, killing all 32 Americans aboard, the U.S. Command announced.The command said the cause of the crash was not known but is under investigation."At this point there is no indication of enemy fire although that is always possible and you can't rule it out," a spokesmen added.Aboard the CH47 Chinook were five crewmen and 27 soldiers.It was the third worst crash of the war in terms of U.S. casualties. The worst was in January 1968 when 41 Marines died in a helicopter near Dong Ha. Thirty-four Americans were killed in an Army Chinook near Da Nang last Nov. 28.The U.S. Command also announced the loss of three more planes, two of them over North Vietnam and one just below the Demilitarized Zone and said five of the crewmen were missing and one was rescued.They included:An Air Force F4 Phantom shot down in the vicinity of the DMZ Wednesday morning while escorting bombers on raids over North Vietnam; two crewmen missing.A Navy RA5 Vigilante from the carrier Kitty Hawk lost Sunday while on a reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam; two crewmen missing.A Marine F4 Phantom shot down Sunday in Quang Tri Province just below the DMZ; one crewman rescued, the other missing.The U.S. Command said American forces have lost a total of 36 helicopters and 34 planes from all causes since the start of the North Vietnamese offensive March 30. A total of 64 Americans have been killed, 62 are missing and 18 have been wounded in the crashes, the command said."Chinook Crash Kills 32 GIs Near Saigon," by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Friday, May 12, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.