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Paul Medore Du Charm
Private First Class
L CO, 3RD BN, 5TH MARINES, 1ST MARDIV, III MAF United States Marine Corps Washington, District of Columbia December 15, 1947 to July 27, 1969 PAUL M DU CHARM is on the Wall at Panel W20, Line 55 |
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Paul Medore DuCharm, age 11, as a Little League baseball player in Barstow, California. Paul was a gifted athlete and a great baseball player. We were teammates and became best friends until Paul moved to Pennsylvania in 1963.
PFC Paul Madore DuCharm was born on 15 December 1947 in Washington, D.C. and died gallantly on 27 July 1969, in the Que Son mountains, Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam. Paul was only 21 years old and had been in Vietnam for 27 days. Paul DuCharm graduated from Barstow Junior High, Barstow, California in June 1962; Abington High School, Philadelphia, PA in 1966; and Valley Forge Military Academy College in 1968. Paul Madore DuCharm enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in the Fall of 1968. On 30 Jun 1969, Paul arrived in Vietnam and joined Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, at the An Hoa camp. On 18 July 1969, Lima Company left An Hoa and began a reconnaissance in force combat operation called Durham Peak. This combat operation was located in Antenna Valley and the Que Son Mountains in Quang Nam Province. This area is 17 miles southwest of Da Nang. PFC Paul DuCharm died when the helicopter he was on (CH-46A BuNo 154018) was shot down. PFC DuCharm, you will never be forgotten. Even as the years pass, Vietnam keeps coming back to us. You gave the supreme sacrifice for your country. You served the Corps honorably and died gallantly in battle. PFC DuCharm, always a Marine, forever a Hero. Miss you, my dear friend. God Bless and Semper Fi.
From his best friend, |
Notes from The Virtual WallOn 27 July 1969 CH-46A BuNo 154018 from HMM-364 was shot down while conducting a medevac mission in support of 3rd Bn, 5th Marines. Eye-witness reports indicate the crash probably was due to both hydraulic boost systems being shot out, rendering the aircraft uncontrollable. That much is clear enough, but after that it gets a bit cloudy.
The 3/5 Marines say they had one ground KIA (Corporal Storm, whose actions while assaulting the NVA position resulted in both his death and a posthumous Silver Star) and two "chasers" (prisoner guards) aboard the aircraft. The two chasers had to be LCpl Barickman and Pfc Du Charm, the other two Lima 3/5 Marines who died on 27 July 1969. HMM-364 had six aircrewmen aboard the aircraft, not five as stated in the 3/5 Chronology or four as named in the VHPA database. Only one Navy Corpsman was aboard the aircraft, not two; HM1 Charles L. Hackworth of MAG-16 was the only Corpsman who died in Quang Nam Province that day. One member of the Fox 2/11 Forward Observer team was aboard, Pfc Ronald J. Scharf. Although the records are unclear, he probably had been wounded in the ground action and was being evacuated. Counting the NVA POW there were eleven living men aboard the aircraft, and one body being evacuated. It therefore appears that ten Americans died in the incident, just as stated in the VHPA database, and eleven all told as stated in the HMM-364 Chronology. The only discrepancy is 3/5's failure to account for Pfc Scharf, who didn't actually belong to them - by leaving him out the 3/5 Chronology shows only ten living men and Cpl Storm's body aboard the aircraft. The ten Americans who died were
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