Iroquois 17 May 1971

Pearce, Dale Allen
Army Warrant officer

Dale Allen Pearce, age 20, from Mentor, Ohio, Lake county. Their last known residence was in Mentor.

Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Mentor High

Date of death: Monday, May 17, 1971
Death details:  On May 17, 1971, an UH-1H Iroquois (tail number 65-17607) with four crew members took off from Camp Evans, South Vietnam, on a mission to extract a reconnaissance team that was under heavy enemy fire in an area northeast of Khe Sanh, Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. Upon approaching the landing area, the Iroquois began taking heavy enemy fire, and a rocket-propelled grenade hit and severed its tail boom. The Iroquois began banking right and started to turn over, and eventually crashed. After the impact, the aircraft continued to slide to the bottom of a hill in the vicinity of (GC) YD 048268. On May 18, a recovery team that was inserted into the area to recover the bodies of the original reconnaissance team searched the downed helicopter’s wreckage and discovered two crew members alive. The body of one of the other two unaccounted for crew members was also found; however, it was not possible to recover the remains at the time. Two of the four crew members remain unaccounted for.

Warrant Officer 1 Dale Allen Pearce entered the U.S. Army from Ohio and was a member of Company C, 158th Aviation Battalion, 101st Airborne Division. He was the pilot of this Iroquois and was lost with the aircraft when it crashed. His remains were not recovered. Today, Warrant Officer 1 Pearce is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Soyland, David Pecor
Army cw3

David Pecor Soyland, age 26, from South Dakota, Pennington county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Monday, May 17, 1971

Death details: On May 17, 1971, an UH-1H Iroquois (tail number 65-17607) with four crew members took off from Camp Evans, South Vietnam, on a mission to extract a reconnaissance team that was under heavy enemy fire in an area northeast of Khe Sanh, Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. Upon approaching the landing area, the Iroquois began taking heavy enemy fire, and a rocket-propelled grenade hit and severed its tail boom. The Iroquois began banking right and started to turn over, and eventually crashed. After the impact, the aircraft continued to slide to the bottom of a hill in the vicinity of (GC) YD 048268. On May 18, a recovery team that was inserted into the area to recover the bodies of the original reconnaissance team searched the downed helicopter’s wreckage and discovered two crew members alive. The body of one of the other two unaccounted for crew members was also found; however, it was not possible to recover the remains at the time. Two of the four crew members remain unaccounted for.

Warrant Officer 1 David Pecor Soyland entered the U.S. Army from South Dakota and was a member of Company C, 158th Aviation Battalion, 101st Airborne Division. He was the aircraft commander of this Iroquois and was lost during the incident. Attempts to recover his remains were unsuccessful. After the incident, the Army promoted WO1 Soyland to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 3 (CW3). Today, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Soyland is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Cemetery: Memorialized in Black Hills National

Source: National Archives, grave marker, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency 

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