DEANE, WILLIAM LAWRENCE

Remains returned 1996 - ID'd 10/04/99

Name: William Lawrence Deane
Rank/Branch: O4/US Army
Unit: AGC Army Advisory Group Headquarters, MACV
Date of Birth: 27 September 1934
Home City of Record: Orlando FL
Date of Loss: 08 January 1973
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 16421N 1070956E (YD324528)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 1
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1H
Refno: 1978

Other Personnel in Incident: Elbert W. Bush; Richard A. Knutson; Manuel A.
Lauterio; William S. Stinson; Mickey A. Wilson (all missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project  01 April 1991 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 2020.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: WO1 Richard Knutson, pilot; WO1 Mickey A. Wilson, aircraft commander;
SP5 William S. Stinson, gunner; SP5 Manuel A. Lauterio, crew chief; and SSgt.
Elbert W. Bush and Maj. William L. Deane, both passengers; were aboard a UH1H
helicopter (serial #69-15619) that flew in support of the American Senior
Advisor to the Vietnamese Airborne Division in Quang Tri and Thua Thien
Provinces, working between the provincial capitals of Hue and Quang Tri.

On January 8, 1973, at about 1430 hours, the aircraft had departed a landing
zone en route to other LZs without making radio contact with the 2nd Battalion
Technical Operations Center. When no radio contact was received by 1500 hours,
the other LZs were queried. The helicopter did not go to either of the two
designated LZs, nor had any communication been established with them.

The helicopter's intended route would have taken it northwest toward Quang Tri,
with a left turn to an LZ south of the Thach Han River. Although the helicopter
failed to contact either LZ along the route, it was later seen flying northwest
toward Quang Tri City and crossing the Thach Han River into enemy held
territory. While in this area, the helicopter was seen to circle with door guns
firing. Enemy automatic weapons fire was heard, and a direct hit was made on
the tail boom by a missile, reportedly an SA7.

Aerial searches of the suspected crash site on January 8 and 9 failed to locate
either the wreckage or the crew. The aircraft was shot down less than three
weeks before American involvement in the war came to an official end.

Intelligence reports indicated that of the six men aboard, four were seen alive
on the ground. Further information indicated that the aircraft did not explode
or burn on impact. The families of the men assumed that their loved ones would
be released with the other POWs. Some were even so informed.

But the crew of the UH1H was not released, and have not been released or found
since that day. As thousands of reports of Americans alive in Southeast Asia
mount, these familes wonder if their men are among the hundreds thought to be
still alive.

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  FLORIDAY TODAY -  Friday April 7, 2000

Time to remember Vietnam victims

An older man parks his dark sedan beneath the shade pines at Melbourne's
Wickham Park on one of those early spring afternoons you want to stick on a
postcard and mail to those in less fortunate northern latitudes. Nylon flags
of all 50 states and their international allies against communism are driven
into urgent rippling by western winds. In the clearing next to the pond sits
the Moving Wall, the shrine to the dead.....

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01/2020

https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000sPLwpEAG

LTC WILLIAM LAWRENCE DEANE

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On October 5, 1999, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Lieutenant Colonel William Lawrence Deane, missing from the Vietnam War.

Lieutenant Colonel Deane joined the U.S. Army from Florida and was a member of the Headquarters, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. On January 8, 1973, he was a passenger aboard a UH-1H Iroquois (tail number 69-15619) on a support mission over Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. The Iroquois was shot down during the mission, and LTC Deane was killed in the incident. Enemy presence in the area prevented ground searches for the helicopter and its crew. In 1996, a joint U.S. and Vietnamese investigative team recovered remains from a site associated with this loss. In 1999, forensic analysis identified the recovered remains as those of LTC Deane.

Lieutenant Colonel Deane is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. 

If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.