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Memorial Day Tribute to our fallen

Dan Egan

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Tricia

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Sorry I missed this on Memorial day. Thank you for sharing.
 

Tricia

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Speaking of Memorial.
Today is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day.
Most of us have seen stories of soldiers who came home and many who never made it home.
Take the time to listen to these links.


 

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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Would like to publicly say that at times yesterday felt a bit guilty because while I'm here having a fine and often fun or interesting time, always relatively safe, and can celebrate more broadly those humans that have gone before us sacrificing, and note am a GI myself, there are people out there in our county, our state, our nation, our planet that are dearly fighting for their lives with every strained painful breath of life that is terrifyingly slipping away. And further there are all the truly essential workers out there that have not had it so easy, and some have also paid the ultimate cost that I a human being greatly says thank you and be safe on this memorializing day of heroes.
 

pchewn

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For Memorial Day I'd like to remember three pilots who flew A-4's with my Dad (MJ Chewning) in squadron VA-55 and were killed in Vietnam.

January to July 1966 was a very costly time to be flying A4's over N. Vietnam.

If not for a few inches, I'd be remembering my dad too. Fortunately he was wounded instead of being killed. (June 3 1966) He's still playing tennis 5 days a week, age 96. He was skiing until age 90 when he moved to Florida.

March 1, 1966: Lt(jg). David Joseph Woloszyk. Woloszyk launched as the number two aircraft A-4E Skyhawk BuNo 152057 side number NK 401) in a flight of four on an armed reconnaissance mission and disappeared after losing contact with his flight leader in poor visibility shortly after crossing the coast about 40 miles SE of Vinh. He reported that he was climbing above the cloud base and had sighted another section of Skyhawks an was going to join them. The leader then climbed above the cloud base and neither he or the other section of Skyhawks saw Woloszyk. No sign of him or his aircraft were found despite an intensive three day search.

May 2, 1966: LCdr. Walter Sutton Wood ejected from A-4E Skyhawk BuNo 151034, side number NK 412, and was killed while returning from an armed rec. mission and made an attack on Hon Ngu island off the coast near Vinh as he had one rocket left in a LAU-3 pod. His parachute was observed to come down in the sea near the island, but he was not seen to move or separate from his chute and his body disappeared beneath the surface 10 minutes after he ejected. Rocket disintegration was suspected.

July 15, 1966: Lt. J. Connell flying A-4E Skyhawk BuNo 151024 side number NK 410 was shot down by AAA anti-aircraft over North Vietnam. Lt. Connell ejected and was captured and made Prisoner-Of-War by the North Vietnamese. Lt. Connell was killed by the North Vietnamese while in captivity.

You can read more about the squadron VA-55 at this site.

http://skyhawk.org/article-unit/va55

Here's the aircraft type they were flying, and a picture of the squadron patch -- the Warhorses.

A4-E.jpg A4-e2.jpg Attack_Squadron_55_(US_Navy)_patch_c1955.png VA-55.jpg
 
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