Home Page : Feature Stories : Last Updated THESE WE REMEMBER: SMOKEJUMPERS WHO DIED
IN LAOS by Fred Donner (Missoula 59) This
article is reprinted from the January 2004 issue of Smokejumper quarterly magazine through the courtesy of the National
Smokejumper Association. The
Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths At The CIA
by Ted Gup (2000) is about many of the now 80 named and unnamed stars on
the memorial wall just inside the main lobby entrance of the Central
Intelligence Agency. As noted
in the July 2002 article Smokejumpers and the CIA: A Bibliography by
this author, the book mentions jumpers from Intermountain Aviation in
Marana, Arizona relative to one event. Mr. Gup caused controversy by
allegedly naming nearly all of the previously unnamed stars.
Whatever
the arguments re The Book of Honor,
many more Americans now know the sacrifices of a band of people whose
dedication to duty and devotion to nation equals that of our military.
But what is unknown even to many in the intelligence community is
that there is another memorial to CIA deaths with 241 names and dates on it
and no mysteries about how they got there.
At least eight smokejumpers are among them.
As
Mr. Gup relates, when the CIA created their memorial they had to make a
policy decision whether to
include air operations deaths. This
was a major question in the aftermath of the Indochina War with the
well-known roles of Civil Air Transport, Air America, Air Asia, and Southern
Air Transport, all CIA-affiliated, in the war. In the end, they were not
included. Later
former employees formed the Civil Air Transport Association and the Air
America Association.
These groups selected the History of Aviation Collection of the
Eugene McDermott Library at the University of Texas at Dallas to house their
archives and historical records. In
1987 a memorial (the memorial is on the web site)
was dedicated at this location.
A smaller replica of this marker
without the names can be found on an inside corridor wall at the CIA
just a short distance beyond the well-known main lobby memorial wall.
David
W. Bevan (Missoula 51), John S. Lewis (McCall 53), and Darrell A.
Eubanks (McCall 54), all kickers or PDOs (parachute delivery
officers) died with two other crew members in the crash of a C-46 in Laos on
August 13, 1961. They were
dropping cargo in support of General Vang Paos Hmong army when they
apparently had a mechanical problem. A
fine tribute to John Lewis was published in the January 2003 issue of Smokejumper. Charles
T. Tom Dieffenbach (Missoula 56) was the pilot of a Helio Courier
shot down over Laos on July 22, 1962. He
survived the crash but died walking out despite the efforts of his Laotian
observer passenger to save him. Tom
was a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot who flew in the same helicopter
squadron in Vietnam with a Missoula 56 rookie classmate, Bob Whaley. Gideon
A. Newton (Cave Junction 55), a kicker, died with five other crew members
when their C-46 crashed on a cargo drop over Laos due to apparent weather
problems on July 17, 1963. According to information in the October 1994
issue of The Static Line, Gid was
found with a D-ring
clutched in his hand, obviously trying. Eugene
H. DeBruin, a Missoula 59 rookie classmate of the author, parachuted from
a burning C-46 along with three Thai kickers and a Chinese radio operator on
September 5, 1963. Two American
pilots went down with the plane. Eugene
has been mentioned several times in this magazine.
In 1966, Gene and six others made the largest POW breakout escape of
the Indochina War. Unfortunately
Gene did not reach safety and remains MIA. Billy
K. Hester (Missoula 58), a kicker and friend of the author from several
months together in the fall of 1959 on a jumper-tanker crew on the Cleveland
National Forest, died with five other crew members in the apparent
weather-related crash of a C-130 in Laos on April 10, 1970.
Edward
J. Weissenback (Cave Junction 64), a kicker, and three other crew members
disappeared in a C-123 that was presumably shot down over the China
Road in northwest Laos on December 27, 1971.
Animal Ed had served on long-range recon patrols with the U.S.
Army in Vietnam. He was mentioned in the April 2002
issue of this magazine. I
believe it would be appropriate that all of our fallen colleagues who died
in the service of our U.S. government - military and civilian - be
remembered at our reunion memorial services as we now remember those who
died in forest fire, airplane, and parachute accidents.
Perhaps another author can tackle the problem of listing military
smokejumpers who died in war. A
baseline for initial research would be the July and October 1994 issues of
the old green NSA newsletter, The
Static Line, that contained considerable obituary information.
(This article has been reviewed by CIA.
That review neither constitutes CIA authentication of information nor
implies CIA endorsement of the authors views.) Fred
Donner is an AAM Association member. He
was the traffic manager at Danang, 1965-1967.
Previously an Air Force lieutenant and a Foreign Service officer, he
is now a retired Defense Intelligence Agency officer with nearly 40 years of
experience and education related to Southeast Asia and China.
This
article is reprinted from the January 2004 issue of Smokejumper quarterly magazine through the courtesy of the National
Smokejumper Association. It
was reviewed by the CIA. That
review neither constitutes CIA authentication of information nor implies CIA
endorsement of the authors views. NSA
life member Fred Donner is a retired Defense Intelligence Agency officer
with nearly 40 years of experience and education related to Southeast Asia
and China. Fred is also a
member of the Air America Association.
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