Bio, Stinson, William S.

Name: William Sherril Stinson
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army
Unit: 67th Aviation Company, 11th Combat Aviation, 1st Aviation Brigade
Date of Birth: 17 June 1947
Home City of Record: Georgiana AL
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; William L. Deane; Richard A.
Knutson; Manuel A. Lauterio; 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.

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. Dean, 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 families wonder if their men are among the
hundreds thought to be still alive.

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Defense POW/MIA Weekly Update
November 9, 1999

The remains of seven American servicemen previously unaccounted-for
from Southeast Asia have been identified and are being returned to their
families for burial in the United States.

They are identified as Major Thomas H. Amos, USAF, of Springfield, Mo.;
Captain Mason I. Burnham, USAF, of Portland, Ore; Sergeant First Class
William S. Stinson, US Army, of Georgiana, Ala.; and four other servicemen.
Their names are not being released at the request of their families...

On January 8, 1973, Stinson and other crew members were on board a
UH-1H Huey helicopter over Quang Tri City, South Vietnam which was believed
to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile. Aerial searches of the area
following the incident failed to locate the aircraft's crew or wreckage.

In August 1993, a joint team interviewed witnesses to a 1972 helicopter
crash in a river near their village. Two of the witnesses provided
information on the burial of several bodies near the crash site, but
indicated several had been exhumed in subsequent years. In 1994, a second
team interviewed other witnesses who led them to a cemetery in which some
claimed to have buried remains, which the team recovered. Returning to the
crash site in 1996, a team excavated a burial site and recovered human
remains and personal effects from three separate graves.

Analysis of the remains and other evidence by CILHI confirmed the
identification of each of these seven servicemen. With the accounting of
these servicemen, 536 Americans have been identified from the war in Vietnam
and returned to their families. There are currently 2,047 Americans still
unaccounted-for from that war.

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.....

Service Member

SFC WILLIAM SHERRIL STINSON

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Conflict
Service
Status
Date of Accounting

VIETNAM WAR
UNITED STATES ARMY
Accounted For
10/05/1999

On October 5, 1999, the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Sergeant First Class William Sherril Stinson, missing from the Vietnam War.

Sergeant First Class Stinson joined the U.S. Army from Alabama and was a member of the 62nd Aviation Company. On January 8, 1973, he was the gunner 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 SFC Stinson was killed in the incident. Enemy presence in the area prevented ground searches for the Iroquois at the time. In 1996, a joint U.S. and Vietnamese investigative team recovered remains from a site associated with SFC Stinson's loss. In 1999, forensic analysis identified the recovered remains as those of SFC Stinson.

Sergeant First Class Stinson 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.

SFC WILLIAM SHERRIL STINSON

Unit
Historical Country of Loss
South Vietnam
Current Country of Loss
VIETNAM
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