Phillipsburg New Jersey

Durkin, Sean M.
Army Sergeant

Sean M. Durkin, age 24, from Phillipsburg, New Jersey. Their last known residence was in Aurora, Colorado.

Parents: Mary Ann Dorward Durking and William J. Durkin (preceded in death)
Spouse: None
Children: None

Service era: Afghanistan
Schools: Eaglecrest High, Aurora, Colorado
Military history: 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, For Carson, Colorado. Bronze Star, Purple Heart.

Date of death: Friday, April 9, 2010
Death details: Died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. from wounds suffered when enemy forces attached his vehicle with an improvised explosive device near Forward Operating Base Wilson, Afghanistan on March 27.
Cemetery: Hays, Easton Pennsylvania

Source: Department of Defense, Easton Express-Times

Suydam, James Lawrence
Army Sergeant

James Lawrence Suydam, age 21, from Phillipsburg, New Jersey, Warren county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Thursday, October 9, 1969
Death details: On October 9, 1969, a UH-1D Iroquois (tail number 63-8826) with nine men aboard was taking off after a troop extraction when its rotor blades struck some trees along the Dong Na River bank. In an attempt to regain altitude and airspeed, the pilot headed over the river, but the helicopter soon struck the water and sank within seconds. Other aircraft in the area surveyed the crash site and observed personnel and debris in the water, but they were soon swept under by the swift current. Only two men were able to survive the crash and swim to shore to be rescued. The remains of two other individuals who were aboard the helicopter were eventually recovered and identified, but the remaining five men are still unaccounted for. Sergeant James Lawrence Suydam entered the U.S. Army from New Jersey and served in Company A, 5th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 199th Light Infantry Brigade. He was aboard this helicopter at the time of its crash and could not be located following the incident. Attempts to recover his remains were unsuccessful. Today, Sergeant Suydam is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Konyu, William Michael
Army Warrant officer

William Michael Konyu from Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

Date of death: Wednesday, April 16, 1969
Death details: On April 16, 1969, eight Company B helicopters were on a mission to support Detachment B-52 (Project Delta), 5th Special Forces Group.  Forty-Six Special Forces soldiers were to be inserted to reinforce a six man reconnaissance team in danger of being over-run by an unknown size enemy force approximately 70 kilometers (44 miles) west-southwest of Da Nang in wartime Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam.  WO1 Konyu, as the pilot, flew the lead UH-1H helicopter (tail number 66-16343) carrying eight Project Delta soldiers.  At 1330 hours during the final approzch to the landing zone, the helicopter was hit by intense enemy ground fire from the front and the left side that that shattered the windshield on the pilot’s side of the helicopter.  W)1 Konyu was seen to slump over the controls after a bullet struck him in the face, and the aircraft commander was wounded.  Control of the helicopter was lost causing it to crash on the landing zone coming to rest on its left side.  The helicopter burst into flames while the crew chief and door guner helped to rescue the wounded aircraft commander and the passengers.  The intense heat of the fire made it impossible to extricate WO1 Konyu’s body.  Several of those on the ground at the time inspected the aircraft after the fire subsided and reported seeing a severely burned body in the pilot’s seat.  A Detachment B-52 ground team returned to the crash site four days later to recover the WO1 Konyu’s remains, but found that the enemy disturbed the wreckage tipping over the pilots seat.  The ground team sifted through the ashes and found no remains.  He remains unaccounted for.

Sources: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Lawrence, Bruce Edward
Air Force Major

Bruce Edward Lawrence, age 25, from Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

Date of death: July 5, 1968
Death details: Major Lawrence joined the U.S. Air Force from Pennsylvania and was a member of the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On July 5, 1968, he was the navigator aboard an F-4C Phantom II (serial number unknown) on a night armed reconnaissance mission over enemy targets in Quang Binh Province, Vietnam. The Phantom was downed by enemy anti-aircraft fire during the mission, and Maj Lawrence was killed in the crash, but his remains were not recovered at the time. After the war, joint U.S./Vietnamese search teams excavated crash sites in the area of Maj Lawrence’s loss, recovering human remains. In 2011, modern forensic techniques identified Maj Lawrence’s remains from among those recovered.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

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