SP4 William Bodzick was a 21 year old crew chief when he lost his life flying a combat mission with the 281st AHC. WO Donald Harrison, WO Daniel Sulander & SP4 Lee Boudreaux, Jr. were also lost in the same crash. The Mission A UH-1D from the 281st AHC was tasked with picking up a long range recon team from just within Laos. The team consisted of two Special Forces personnel (MSG Russell Bott and SMAJ Willie Stark) and a number of South Vietnamese Army personnel. The recon team was in hot contact with a larger enemy force from the NVA 325b Division, Stark had been wounded in the chest and leg, and several ARVN troops had been killed or wounded. SGT Irby Dyer, a medic with Det B-52, 5th SFG, was aboard the UH-1D, which was hit by gunfire, crashed, and burned. The recon team was not picked up. Searches conducted between 10 and 13 December located the UH-1D wreckage and identified the remains of the five men aboard, but the search team was not able to recover the bodies. No trace of Bott and Stark was found. Another team was inserted to recover the remains of the helicopter crew, but found that US air strikes in the area had hit the UH-1 wreckage. While three bodies could be positively identified and recovered, WO Sulander's and SGT Dyer's remains could not be identified. Although there was some evidence that Bott was captured, there is no certainty of what happened to either of the two Special Forces men. Visit the 281st Assault Helicopter Company or The Virtual Wall's 281ST AHC unit listing

 

A memorial from the 281st Assault Helicopter Association Contact Us 26 Nov 2001

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