CPT JOHN RICHARD HILL

 

30 May 2004 To my father, who touched so many lives in his short life. "Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o'er, Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, Dream of battled fields no more. Days of danger, nights of waking." ~ Sir Walter Scott ~

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall On the evening of 27 April 1970 the 237th Medical Detachment (Air Ambulance) at Quang Tri was tasked with providing an emergency transfer from the 18th Surgical Hospital to the Naval Support Activity Hospital at Danang. A UH-1H (tail number 67-17626) was dispatched at approximately 1900 (7 PM). The aircraft was crewed by CPT John R. Hill, Waynesburg, PA, pilot WO1 D. G. Study, copilot SP4 Zettie J. Dulin, Brazil, IN, crew chief PFC Randall W. Love, Cecilia, KY, medic The trip to Danang was uneventful with the patient delivered to the NSA Hospital at about 2000. After refueling at Marble Mountain the crew elected to return to Quang Tri even though the weather was deteriorating with low cloud cover and rain. The Huey departed at about 2020 and headed north along the coast at an altitude of 300 feet in an attempt to maintain visual flight conditions below the clouds. North of Danang they turned seaward to avoid a mountainous peninsula and shortly thereafter, with WO1 Study at the controls, the aircraft impacted the water. All four crewmen were able to exit the aircraft safely, but none of them were wearing flotation gear. PFC Love drowned almost at once and the other three men began the swim to shore. Captain Hill became separated from the other two and disappeared in the rainy darkness. WO Study and SP4 Dulin then became separated. Study managed to stay afloat through the night and was picked up by a Korean LST at about 0630 28 April, but search and rescue efforts failed to locate the other three crewmen. The bodies of SP4 Dulin and PFC Love were recovered on 01 May 1970. Captain Hill's body was not recovered.

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