Huron County Michigan

Bruce Gardner Johnson, age 27, from Harbor Beach, Michigan, Huron 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. Captain Bruce Gardner Johnson entered the U.S. Army from Michigan and was a member of Detachment SD5891, Headquarters, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. He was a passenger on board the UH-1B when it crashed, and his remains were not recovered. After the incident, the U.S. Army promoted Captain Johnson to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Today, Lieutenant Colonel Johnson 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