BIBBS, WAYNE (NMN)
Name: Wayne Bibbs Rank/Branch: E3/US Army Unit: Date of Birth: 14 June 1954 (Chicago IL) Home City of Record: Blue Island IL Date of Loss: 11 June 1972 Country of Loss: South Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 162326N 1072407E (YD565135) Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered Category: 2 Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: OH6A Refno: 1874
Other Personnel In Incident: Arnold E. Holm; Robin R. Yeakley (missing from one OH6A); James E. Hackett; James R. McQuade, Richard D. Wiley (missing from second OH6A).
REMARKS: EXPLODE - NO PARABEEPERS - J
Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 2006.
SYNOPSIS: By December 1971, U.S. troops in-country had declined dramatically - from the 1968 peak of nearly 55,000 to less than 30,000. The enemy, temporarily on the defensive by the moves into Cambodia in 1970 and Laos in 1971, began deploying new NVA forces southward in preparation for another major offensive.
In March 1972, the Vietnamese launched a three-pronged invasion of the South. One NVA force swept south across the DMZ, its goal apparently the conquest of the northern provinces and the seizure of Hue. A second NVA force drove from Laos into the Central Highlands, and a third effort involved a drive from Cambodia into provinces northwest of Saigon.
Fierce fighting ensued on all three fronts, with NVA success the greatest in the northern provinces. Fighting continued until by June, the North Vietnamese began withdrawing from some of their advance positions, still holding considerable amounts of South Vietnamese territory in the northern provinces.
On June 11, 1972, Capt. Arnold Holm, pilot, PFC Wayne Bibbs, gunner, and SP4 Robin Yeakley, passenger, were aboard an OH6A observation helicopter flying from Camp Eagle to the Northern Provinces of South Vietnam on a visual reconnaissance mission. The function of their "Loach" chopper was searching out signs of the enemy around two landing zones (LZ's). The OH6 joined with the AH1G Cobra gunship as "Pink Teams" to screen the deployment of air cavalry troops. On this day, Holm's aircraft was monitoring an ARVN team insertion.
During the mission, Holm reported that he saw enemy living quarters, bunkers, and numerous trails. On his second pass over a ridge, at about 25' altitude, the aircraft exploded and burned. It was reported that before the aircraft crashed that smoke and white phosphorous grenades began exploding. After the aircraft impacted with the ground, it exploded again. Other aircraft in the area received heavy anti-aircraft fire. No one was seen to exit the downed helicopter, nor were emergency radio beepers detected.
In another OH6A (tail #67-16275), 1Lt. James R. McQuade, pilot, and SP4 James E. Hackett, gunner, tried to enter the area of the crashed OH6A, but encountered heavy fire and their aircraft was also shot down. McQuade's aircraft was hit, and the intensity of the resulting fire caused white phosphorous and smoke grenades carried aboard the aircraft to explode prior to hitting the ground. The aircraft continued to burn after impact and no crewmen left the ship before or after the crash.
No ground search was made for survivors or remains of either aircraft because of hostile fire in the area.
There are unanswered questions remaining from Vietnam. Of the nearly 2500 Americans who did not return alive or dead, experts venture that hundreds may still be alive. Thousands of reports have been received concerning them. Whether the two OH6A crews are among those seems unlikely. But one can imagine their willingness to deploy on one more combat team to bring those who are alive home to freedom.
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Waynes mother, REBECCA "Becky" BIBBS passed away 18 Nov 1996. She was 64.
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Chicago Sun Times (IL) July 26, 2006
Site of soldier's '72 crash possibly found: Family of 17-year-old from Blue Island waiting decades for discovery Eric Herman ; The Chicago Sun-Times
The Pentagon appears to have found the final resting place of Pfc. Wayne Bibbs.
But his mother will never know.
Bibbs, of south suburban Blue Island, was three days shy of his 18th birthday when his Hughes OH-6A helicopter went down in the jungles of Vietnam. His 1972 disappearance left his family devastated -- a loss heightened by the lack of certainty about his death. That year, the family held a memorial service with a closed, empty casket.
This month, after years of searching, military investigators found a site in the Quang Tri province they say is where Bibbs and two other soldiers crashed.
"It brings me some closure," said younger brother Andrei Bibbs, 49. "It brings me a little relief."
3-SEAT HELICOPTER 'SIGNIFICANT'
At the spot in Quang Tri -- in what was once the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam -- investigators found the cover of a log book, a helmet, a piece of an M16 rifle, and remnants of an OH-6A helicopter, said Troy Kitch, spokesman for the Joint POW/ MIA Accounting Command.
The helicopter has a three-seat configuration, "which is significant because it's usually a two-seater," Kitch said. It's a detail that links the site to Bibbs' three-man mission.
"We hope that that's the site we're looking for," Kitch said.
Bibbs was on a reconnaissance flight with U.S. Army Capt. Arnold Holm and Spec. Robin Yeakley, of South Bend, Ind., when their helicopter was shot down. The craft exploded in flames, according to Andrei Bibbs and a Web site about Vietnam casualties.
At first, the military told Bibbs' family he was a prisoner of war. Later, they declared him missing in action.
"I've been having dreams about him ever since that happened," Andrei Bibbs said. "I always had dreams that he was still alive, because he was a survivor. My mother always had faith that he was alive until the day she died."
Wayne Bibbs, who would be 52 if he had lived, was the second of three sons. His brothers Andrei and Homer live on the South Side. Their mother, Rebecca Bibbs, died in 1996.
AREA WILL BE EXCAVATED
He attended Eisenhower High in Blue Island and worked at a Posen food store, his brother said.
"He liked to work and shoot pool," Andrei Bibbs said. "He played the piano by ear. He could listen to music on the radio and sit down and play it." Bibbs was also "very adventurous," a quality that led him to enlist at 17, Andrei said.
Because of his age, the Army gave Bibbs' parents a letter saying he would not be sent overseas, Andrei Bibbs said. But the family soon found out the military broke that pledge.
"We thought he was still in Alabama, and he wrote a letter to us saying he was in Vietnam," Andrei Bibbs said. "Right after we got that letter, that's when he got shot down."
The Bibbs family sued the government, but the case was dismissed.
The military will excavate the Quang Tri site in the next year or two, Kitch said. At that point, it will know for certain if Bibbs crashed there.
The Pentagon still classifies 1,805 soldiers from the Vietnam War as missing and unaccounted for.
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Search may uncover GI's fate Chicago Tribune Published September 10, 2006
BLUE ISLAND -- The remains of U.S. Army Pfc. Wayne Bibbs may be closer to coming home--35 years after the Blue Island teenager disappeared in Vietnam.
On Friday, representatives of the military's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, announced that the site where Bibbs' helicopter is believed to have crashed has been chosen as an "alternate excavation site" for 2007. Investigators believe they found the chopper's 200-by-260-foot debris field earlier this year, although confirmation will not come until DNA testing is done on remains recovered during the excavation.
"When the investigative team discovered the site this year, they came back and recommended it for excavation, but there were already dozens and dozens of cases that were already in the queue for investigation," said Troy Kitch, a JPAC spokesman. "If we finish some of our sites in that area early, then we will do this one."
If not, the site will be excavated in 2008, Kitch said.
Bibbs, 17 when he was presumably killed, was the door gunner in a helicopter on a scouting mission near the Laotian border. The other occupants, also presumed killed, were Capt. Arnold "Dusty" Holm of Connecticut, the helicopter's pilot, and Spc. Robin Yeakley of South Bend, Ind.