John Henry Ralph Brooks, age 24, from Bryant Pond, Maine, Oxford county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: May 13, 1969
Death details: On May 13, 1969, a UH-1H Iroquois (serial number 67-17399) was one of three helicopters carrying American and South Korean forces on a combat mission in South Vietnam. The operation was conducted under the control of the 1st Regiment, Capital Division, South Korean Army. While approaching the landing zone, this Iroquois came under fire and crashed into a mountain ridgeline. Subsequent investigations of the site of the crash found the remains of three crew members. The other occupants of the helicopter could not be accounted for.
Staff Sergeant John Henry Ralph Brooks, who joined the U.S. Army in Maine, was a member of 129th Aviation Company, 268th Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group. He was the crew chief aboard this Iroquois when it crashed, and he could not be located afterwards. Conflicting witness reports indicated that SSG Brooks was either killed when the helicopter was hit, or he survived the crash but was killed in the ensuing fight. He remains unaccounted for. Today, Staff Sergeant Brooks is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
