16 Nov 2001 MOVING Moving means a great many things and The Moving Wall was just that. Whether you were veteran, friend, relative or just looking for an experience, The Moving Wall was just that - MOVING. For many it was a homecoming; a time when thoughts, ideas and suffering all hit home. As one veteran mentioned, "This Brings Everything Home," with a somber grin. Others searched for loved ones lost long ago in a war we are still strying to make sense of. One woman pointed out, "I don't know how I didn't know who had gone to the war." But there is a common thread through all of this: this was a time for a healing of wounds. Put The War In Perspective And REMEMBER! From one who wore his MIA bracelet, Kevin A. Rumsey Rumminator@aol.com

 

10 Nov 2002 A memorial from one who wore his POW/MIA bracelet Missy LaBelle E-mail will be forwarded by the Webmaster@VirtualWall.org

 

The Mission On 30 June 1970, Captain William S. Sanders, pilot, and SFC Albert E. Mosiello, observer, were conducting a visual reconnaissance mission in an OV-10A (Hull number 3807, call sign "Nail 44"). Due to mission requirements for handheld photography NAIL 44 was flying below the usual minimum of 1500 feet. The aircraft was taken under fire and hit by a 37mm AAA shell in its left side adjacent to the pilot's position. With his pilot unresponsive and the OV-10 no longer airworthy, Mosiello ejected. The OV-10 had gone down in heavily forested, rugged mountains about 3 miles west of the Lao/South Vietnamese border and 12 miles south of the demilitarized zone (DMZ). A second FAC in the vicinity heard SFC Mosiello's emergency beeper and made radio contact with the downed observer. He then initiated Search and Rescue operations. A HH-53C JOLLY GREEN helicopter from the 40th Air Rescue/Recovery Squadron (ARRS) at Udorn RTAFB, Thailand, was immediately dispatched to the area of loss. The HH-53 crew consisted of Captain Leroy C. Schaneberg, pilot; Major John W. Goeglein, co-pilot; SSgt Marvin E. Bell, flight engineer; SSgt Michael F. Dean, pararescueman; and MSgt. Paul L. Jenkins, pararescueman. As the aircraft hovered over SFC Mosiello's position, it was hit by a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) in the rotor head. The rotor assembly separated from the fuselage, which rolled over and crashed in a fireball on the ground. No emergency beepers were heard emanating from the helicopter's crash site and the FAC could see no signs of survivors. Although nightfall was approaching, a second effort was staged using a helicopter from Da Nang and A-1E SANDYs for fire suppression. SFC Mosiello was picked up. In his debriefing statement, SFC Mosiello stated a belief that Captain Sanders had been killed by the AAA hit and that he did not see Sanders eject or another parachute deploy. Search efforts for the Captain Sanders and the HH-53 crew continued through the next day, but no beepers were heard, no contact with the downed aircrew was made, and there were no visual sightings of survivors. SAR efforts were terminated and the six men were listed as Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered. In December 1992, a US/Lao team surveyed and excavated the HH-53 crash site. Human remains were recovered and on 7 March 1995 the US government identified the remains as those of the five HH-53 aircrewmen. Efforts to locate the OV-10 crash site were unsuccessful due to the terrain and dense jungle.

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