Burnham, Donald Dawson
Army Lieutenant colonel
Donald Dawson Burnham from Webb, Alabama, Houston county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, February 2, 1968
Death details: On February 2, 1968, a UH-1H Iroquois (tail number 66-16442) carrying three passengers and two crew members was making a ground radar controlled approach to Da Nang Air Base when the ground controller suddenly and unexpectedly lost radio and radar contact with the aircraft. The entire crew was lost along with the helicopter. Several months later in May 1968, the aircraft was discovered to have crashed in a heavily-wooded gully with dense underbrush. Some remains were recovered but could not be identified as any of the crew members. Subsequent efforts to locate the crew’s remains have been unsuccessful.
Captain Donald Dawson Burnham entered the U.S. Army from Alabama and served in Troop B, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. He was the pilot of the helicopter when it crashed on February 2, 1968, and his remains were not recovered. Following the incident, the Army promoted CPT Burnham to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (LTC). Today, Lieutenant Colonel Burnham is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency