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Palma, Luco William
Navy Seaman

Luco William Palma, age 20, from Tewksbury, Massachusetts, Middlesex county.

Service era: Vietnam
Military history: Luco was one of the men seen on television April 17, 1970 as he and other frogmen dropped into the South Pacific to assist the astronauts and secure their space craft.

Date of death: Friday, September 18, 1970
Death details: Killed by a land mine in Vietnam while on a volunteer patrol mission

Source: National Archives, Associated Press

Allen, Wayne Clouse
Army Sergeant 1st class

Wayne Clouse Allen, age 21, from Tewksbury, Massachusetts, Middlesex county.

Parents: Florence Allen Johnston

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Saturday, January 10, 1970
Death details: On July 24, 2006, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Sergeant First Class Wayne Clouse Allen, missing from the Vietnam War. Sergeant First Class Allen joined the U.S. Army from Massachusetts and was a member of the 71st Aviation Company, 14th Battalion, 16th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Division. On January 10, 1970, he was the crew chief aboard a UH-1C Iroquois helicopter returning to Chu Lai, South Vietnam. Inclement weather caused the UH-1C to crash in Quang Nam Province, and SFC Allen was killed in the incident. Immediate search efforts were unable to locate the helicopter’s crash site. In 1994, a local informant led a joint U.S./Vietnamese search team to a burial site in Quang Nam Province. Excavations of the site recovered several sets of remains, including those of the UH-1C’s crew. In 2006, modern forensic techniques allowed for the identification of SFC Allen’s remains from among those recovered.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Boston Globe (1991)

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