thedrifter
05-18-09, 06:39 AM
Looking North for fallen soldier
Posted By MARIA CALABRESE, THE NUGGET
Twenty-year-old fleet marine corpsman Phillip Fox is fondly remembered as Doc by those who knew him as more than a name on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington.
The nights we spent in the bush with the third herd. You patched us up and kept us going. May the Lord keep you close like we, your Marines, did," a retired chief warrant officer who served with him posts on a website dedicated to Vietnam's casualties.
Army Cpl. Franklin Crites, 25, was drafted and had served two years when he was killed in the early days of the battle of Long Khanh in 1971.
Shed those magazineladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother," writes a 101st Airborne infantryman.
American retired Navy man Greg Ford relies on his computer to research classmates from Flint Northern High School in Michigan who were killed while serving in the military. The 1964 graduate is tasked to make a presentation about them during his 45th school reunion this summer.
A missing piece of the puzzle about a childhood friend brought his attention to a dense bush near North Bay.
Lt. Gary Quick, 24, was a takeoff from Jack Garland Airport on May 19, 1971.
Quick was killed, along with electronics warfare officer Capt. Howard Lane of Marshalltown, Iowa.
Their bodies were returned to their hometowns six days later.
member of the 4677 Defence Systems Evaluation Squadron at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. He was behind the controls of a United States Air Force RB-57 Canberra taking part in
friendly enemy" Norad exercises over North Bay when the plane crashed in a wooded area near Tilden Lake at 10:25 p. m., moments after Gary and I grew up together. That's what makes it a special bond for me," Ford says in a phone interview from his home in Honokaa, Hawaii.
Every summer, Gary and I played summer-league baseball down at one of the local parks," he says. The guys still talk about it. He had a mean fastball."
Quick married childhood sweetheart Monica Lafata, a student at rival Flint Central High School, and they had a 15- month-old daughter, Alisa, when he died. Lafata married 10 years later, and Alisa now has a 17- year-old daughter of her own. Ford carefully broached the issue of the North Bay crash, but Lafata knew precious little about her husband's last moments.
With Gary, there's absolutely nothing," Ford says. In fact, the air force has come back to me and said there is no information available."
He filled in a few gaps from local media coverage in the days after the crash. A small group of planes used electronic devices and irregular flight patterns to try and avoid detection during Norad exercises. When CF-101 Voodoos located the planes, they scrambled to intercept.
Control tower officials at the airport saw an explosion along the bomber's flight path, and there was no radio contact from the plane in the moments before the crash.
The USAF grounded its B-57s. That's standard procedure,"
says Capt. Doug Newman, 22 Wing heritage officer at CFB North Bay.
If you don't know the specifics of why an airplane had an accident, then the tendency is to ground them until you can confirm that it's not a mechanical problem."
CFB North Bay would have had a full hospital and fire service at the time, and reports say a doctor at the base joined an Ontario Provincial Police identification officer and senior search officers who travelled by helicopter to reach the scene.
Ford served in the Navy for 26 years, including 2 1/2 tours in Vietnam reaching the Mekong Delta close to where Crites was killed in an ambush near Saigon, and further north near Khe Sanh where Fox, a member of the hospital corps, was killed while tending to wounded marines during a firefight near Quang Tri in 1966.
Ford has also lost friends in Iraq where he worked with the U. S. Department of Defence to find roadside bombs and weapons caches--a satisfying job, he says, to help those soldiers in their mission.
Ford says he suffered privately for years before he was able to talk about his combat experiences, and his catharsis came during his only trip to the Vietnam Memorial Wall.
He plans to keep talking, giving a voice to his classmates who never had the chance to speak for themselves.
We lived through the Vietnam War and some people died. There is an emotional part of that, I'm sure, that's going to come up."
Ellie
Posted By MARIA CALABRESE, THE NUGGET
Twenty-year-old fleet marine corpsman Phillip Fox is fondly remembered as Doc by those who knew him as more than a name on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington.
The nights we spent in the bush with the third herd. You patched us up and kept us going. May the Lord keep you close like we, your Marines, did," a retired chief warrant officer who served with him posts on a website dedicated to Vietnam's casualties.
Army Cpl. Franklin Crites, 25, was drafted and had served two years when he was killed in the early days of the battle of Long Khanh in 1971.
Shed those magazineladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother," writes a 101st Airborne infantryman.
American retired Navy man Greg Ford relies on his computer to research classmates from Flint Northern High School in Michigan who were killed while serving in the military. The 1964 graduate is tasked to make a presentation about them during his 45th school reunion this summer.
A missing piece of the puzzle about a childhood friend brought his attention to a dense bush near North Bay.
Lt. Gary Quick, 24, was a takeoff from Jack Garland Airport on May 19, 1971.
Quick was killed, along with electronics warfare officer Capt. Howard Lane of Marshalltown, Iowa.
Their bodies were returned to their hometowns six days later.
member of the 4677 Defence Systems Evaluation Squadron at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. He was behind the controls of a United States Air Force RB-57 Canberra taking part in
friendly enemy" Norad exercises over North Bay when the plane crashed in a wooded area near Tilden Lake at 10:25 p. m., moments after Gary and I grew up together. That's what makes it a special bond for me," Ford says in a phone interview from his home in Honokaa, Hawaii.
Every summer, Gary and I played summer-league baseball down at one of the local parks," he says. The guys still talk about it. He had a mean fastball."
Quick married childhood sweetheart Monica Lafata, a student at rival Flint Central High School, and they had a 15- month-old daughter, Alisa, when he died. Lafata married 10 years later, and Alisa now has a 17- year-old daughter of her own. Ford carefully broached the issue of the North Bay crash, but Lafata knew precious little about her husband's last moments.
With Gary, there's absolutely nothing," Ford says. In fact, the air force has come back to me and said there is no information available."
He filled in a few gaps from local media coverage in the days after the crash. A small group of planes used electronic devices and irregular flight patterns to try and avoid detection during Norad exercises. When CF-101 Voodoos located the planes, they scrambled to intercept.
Control tower officials at the airport saw an explosion along the bomber's flight path, and there was no radio contact from the plane in the moments before the crash.
The USAF grounded its B-57s. That's standard procedure,"
says Capt. Doug Newman, 22 Wing heritage officer at CFB North Bay.
If you don't know the specifics of why an airplane had an accident, then the tendency is to ground them until you can confirm that it's not a mechanical problem."
CFB North Bay would have had a full hospital and fire service at the time, and reports say a doctor at the base joined an Ontario Provincial Police identification officer and senior search officers who travelled by helicopter to reach the scene.
Ford served in the Navy for 26 years, including 2 1/2 tours in Vietnam reaching the Mekong Delta close to where Crites was killed in an ambush near Saigon, and further north near Khe Sanh where Fox, a member of the hospital corps, was killed while tending to wounded marines during a firefight near Quang Tri in 1966.
Ford has also lost friends in Iraq where he worked with the U. S. Department of Defence to find roadside bombs and weapons caches--a satisfying job, he says, to help those soldiers in their mission.
Ford says he suffered privately for years before he was able to talk about his combat experiences, and his catharsis came during his only trip to the Vietnam Memorial Wall.
He plans to keep talking, giving a voice to his classmates who never had the chance to speak for themselves.
We lived through the Vietnam War and some people died. There is an emotional part of that, I'm sure, that's going to come up."
Ellie