Robert Allen Nickol from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Northampton county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, October 26, 1971
Death details: On October 26, 1971, a CH-47 Chinook (tail number 66-19143, call sign “Warrior 143”) with five crew members and five passengers aboard left Tuy Hoa, South Vietnam, on a supply mission to Cam Rahn Bay, South Vietnam. The helicopter encountered inclement weather and lost radio communication before it crashed into the water off the coast of Nha Trang. Search and rescue missions recovered four bodies and retreived debris that washed ashore on Hon Tre Island. The other six men aboard the helicopter remain missing. Specialist 5 Robert Allen Nickol, who joined the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania, served with the Headquarters & Headquarters Troop, 7th Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment (Air), 1st Aviation Group. He was a passenger aboard the Chinook when it crashed, and his remains were not recovered. Specialist 5 Nickol is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency