Pennington, Ronald Keith
Marines Lance corporal
Ronald Keith Pennington from Hambleton, West Virginia, Tucker county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Thursday, April 27, 1967
Death details: On April 27, 1967, a UH-34D Choctaw (bureau number 148071) carrying eleven Marines was transferring personnel from the USS Point Defiance (LSD 31) to the USS Okinawa (LPH 3) when it crashed for unknown reasons into the South China Sea sixty miles from land. Search and rescue teams from both vessels deployed to the crash site and rescued five of the Marines, but were unable to recover the other six.
Lance Corporal Ronald Keith Pennington, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from West Virginia, served with the Headquarters and Service Company, 1st Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Marine Regiment, 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade. He was aboard the Choctaw when it crashed, and his remains were not recovered. Today, Lance Corporal Pennington is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency