BRIDGES, JERRY GLEN

Name: Jerry Glen Bridges
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army
Unit: 243rd Assault Helicopter Company, 10th Combat Aviation Battalion
Date of Birth: 07 January 1948 (Tamms IL)
Home City of Record: Columbia TN
Date of Loss: 20 October 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 122945N 1090753E (BP890830)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: CH47
Refno: 1306

Other Personnel In Incident: Charles E. Deitsch; Henry C. Knight; Charles H.
Meldahl; Ronald V. Stanton (all missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 June 1990 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK 1998.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: On October 20, 1968, CW3 Deitsch, aircraft commander; WO1 Knight,
pilot; SP5 Meldahl, crewchief; SP4 Bridges, flight engineer; and SP4
Stanton, door gunner, departed Dong Ba Thien Airfield, South Vietnam, in a
CH47A helicopter (serial #66-19053) on a resupply mission to Ban Me Thuot,
South Vietnam.

The CH47 "Chinook" helicopter was one of the workhorses of the Army's air
fleet. As a cargo lift, the Chinook could carry up to 28,000 pounds on its
external cargo hook, and is credited with the recovery of 11,500 disabled
aircraft worth more than $3 billion. As troop carrier, the aircraft could be
fitted with 24 litters for medical evacuation, or carry 33-44 troops in
addition to the crew. On one occasion, a Chinook evacuated 147 refugees and
their possessions on a single flight. The Chinook could be outfitted for
bombing missions, dropping tear gas or napalm in locations fixed wing
aircraft could not reach. The big bird could carry a large cargo of
supplies.

Deitsch radioed at 0700 hours on October 20 that his aircraft was over the
Ninh Hoa Valley. That was the last anyone heard of the CH47. At about 0800
hours, it was determined that the helicopter was overdue.

An intensive search effort was made, but no wreckage was ever found of the
CH47, and search efforts were concluded on October 28. Villagers were later
canvassed throughout the Ninh Ho Valley, and literature was distributed
asking about the crash of the Chinook, but no new information was ever
discovered.

The five men aboard the Chinook lost on October 20, 1968 were classified
Missing In Action. They are among nearly 2400 Americans who are unaccounted
for from American involvement in Vietnam. Experts now believe that hundreds
of Americans are still alive in Southeast Asia, waiting for their country to
come for them. The crew of the CH47 lost on October 20, 1968 could be among
them. It's time we brought them home.

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