Curlee, Robert Lee Jr.
Army Staff sergeant

Robert Lee Jr. Curlee, age 24, from Monroe, North Carolina, Union county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Thursday, June 10, 1965
Death details: On June 10, 1965, a UH-1B Iroquois (tail number 63-38557) with a crew of four and three passengers took off from Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Saigon, on a mission to extract personnel from the Dong Xoai Special Forces Camp, South Vietnam. The camp was under attack, and as the helicopter was disembarking its three passengers at the landing zone, it came under heavy mortar and small arms fire from enemy forces in the area. The helicopter took off and began climbing, but crashed shortly thereafter near Thuan Loi Airfield. One of the passengers radioed that everyone else on board was killed in the crash, and that he was taking heavy mortar and small-arms fire. The crew of another helicopter flying the same mission saw mortar rounds exploding in the area from where the passenger was last heard. Because of enemy activity in the area, a search and rescue mission could not be conducted. The four crew members and three passengers remain unaccounted for. Staff Sergeant Robert Lee Curlee Jr. entered the U.S. Army from North Carolina and was a member of Detachment SD5891, Headquarters, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. He was a passenger aboard the UH-1B when it crashed on June 10, 1965, and his remains were not recovered. Today, Staff Sergeant Curlee is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com