HELMICH, GERALD ROBERT
Name: Gerald Robert Helmich
Branch/Rank: United States Air Force/O4
Unit:
Date of Birth: 17 November 1931
Home City of Record: MANCHESTER NH
Date of Loss: 12 November 1969
Country of Loss: LAOS
Loss Coordinates: 172800 North 1054000 East
Status (in 1973): Presumptive Finding of Death
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A1H #139821
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno: 1521
Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined Action
Combat Casualty File. 2020
REMARKS:
CACCF/CRASH/PILOT
No further information available at this time.
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Plaque honors Manchester man killed in Vietnam War
By Holly Ramer,
Associated Press, 05/31/99
MANCHESTER, NH (AP) - Nearly 30 years after Col. Gerald Helmich's
plane was shot down over Laos, Donn Inglis turned his friend's final
mission into a mission of his own Monday.....
=============================================
Article published Nov 11, 2006
Vietnam
Families still feel war's sting
Six from N.H. have never been found
By Joelle Farrell
Monitor staff
Courtesy photo
Army Spc. Quinten Mulleavey went missing in Vietnam.
The soldiers had already begun slogging up a mountain in Bong Son, Vietnam,
when they realized Spc. Quinten Mulleavey wasn't with them. Walking back,
they found his pack, his rifle and helmet, an empty package of cigarettes
and a packet of Kool-Aid near a stream. But Mulleavey, 19, of North
Woodstock, was never found......
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01/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000KYX0EAO
Major Gerald R. Helmich, who joined the U.S. Air Force from New Hampshire, served with the 6th Special Operation Squadron. On November 12, 1969, piloting an A-1H Skyraider (tail number 52-139821, call sign "Spad 2") Major Helmich participated in a search and rescue (SAR) mission over Laos. He was ordered to lay a smoke screen in preparation for the extraction attempt. Another pilot on the SAR mission saw Maj Helmich's Skyraider crash in the vicinity of (GC) WE 747 328. No parachute was seen, and no rescue beeper signal was detected. Several SAR efforts were conducted without success. Subsequent to the incident, and while carried in the status of missing in action (MIA), the U.S. Air Force promoted Major Helmich to the rank of Colonel (Col). Today, Colonel Helmich is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual's case to be in the analytical category of Active Pursuit.
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