Beaver Falls Pennsylvania

John Leroy Straley, age 24, from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, Beaver county.

Parents: Robert E. Straley
Spouse: Betty (Alaskin)

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Saturday, January 18, 1964
Death details: On January 18, 1964, a UH-1B Iroquois (tail number 62-01880) carrying five crew members took part in a tactical operation over South Vietnam. After making a firing pass on Viet Cong positions in the target area, the Iroquois experienced total rotor failure and crashed into the South China Sea. Two helicopters hovered over the crash site and sighted four to five personnel in the water. Each helicopter managed to rescue one man from the water. Another helicopter dropped life vests to the swimmers, but the survivors in the water were too weak to hold onto them. The survivors soon disappeared beneath the water, and were not seen again. An extensive search of the area was conducted, resulting in the recovery of the remains of a British wing commander who had been aboard the Iroquois. The other two men from the helicopter’s crew are still unaccounted for. Private First Class John Leroy Straley, who joined the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania, was a member of the Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company, 145th Combat Aviation Battalion, and was a crew member aboard the Iroquois when it went down. He was not rescued following the incident, and his remains were not located. Today, Private First Class Straley is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, New Castle News (1964)