THE MEMORIAL Black Jack was my hoochmate, my fellow pilot and and friend in combat. I will never forget his memory and the ultimate sacrifice that he gave for us. Texas Tommy Waldrop Arlington, Texas tommy@thunderboltavn.com THE INCIDENT From the Blue Max Aerial Rocket Artillery Association site: At approximately 2230 hours, 24 June 1972, CW2 John L. Dilallo took off on a test flight in a AH-1G COBRA (hull number 68-15206) from Long Thanh North Army Airfield. Just before takeoff, he stated to the crew chief that he wanted to be sure that the aircraft was ready for the upcoming trip to Da Nang. The aircraft departed without any difficulty apparent to observers on the ground. About fifteen minutes later the pilot called Long Thanh to tell them that he had a partial loss of cyclic control and was going down. A few seconds later he reported that he was going into a river at approximately grid coordinate 0391 with 190 knots and no cyclic control. The COBRA crashed in the Saigon River. CW2 Dilallo's body was recovered on 27 June 1972.

 

A memorial from his friend, Tommy Waldrop tommy@thunderboltavn.com  10 May 2001

Contact Us

© Copyright 1997-2019 www.VirtualWall.org, Ltd ®(TM)

Last update 08/15/2019.