TAYLOR, WALTER JOSEPH JR.

Name: Walter Joseph Taylor, Jr.
Rank/Branch: E3/US Army
Unit: Company B, 158th Aviation Battalion, 101st Airborne Division
Date of Birth: 30 October 1947
Home City of Record: Moss Point MS
Date of Loss: 06 December 1970
Country of Loss: South Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 160903N 1081308E (BZ013850)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1M
Refno: 1682

Source: Compiled 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 in 1998.

Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: On December 6, 1970, PFC Joseph Taylor was serving as a door
gunner on a UH1M helicopter when it crashed into the South China Sea near
the Da Nang Harbor. The aircraft failed to recover from a very steep dive
being maneuvered. (Note: The UH1M, was not a particularly common version of
the Huey used in Vietnam. The M model was essentially the same as a UH1C,
with the addition of a more powerful engine.)

PFC Taylor was last seen by the aircraft commander about one minute prior to
the crash of the aircraft. Upon impact with the water the helicopter
exploded and burned. Rescue teams recovered the pilot and aircraft commander
and several days later, the body of the crew chief. Navy divers also
recovered a portion of the aircraft, but no trace of Taylor was found.

It was the opinion of the U.S. Army that Taylor died on December 6, 1970.
Because his body was not recovered, Taylor is listed among the nearly 2500
Americans missing from the Vietnam war.

For others who are missing, determination of death is not possible. Some of
the missing were last seen being led away by enemy troops. A few wrote home
from POW camps, but were not released at the end of the war. Others were in
radio contact with search and rescue teams and advised them of their
imminent capture. Some simply disappeared.

Since the war ended, thousands of reports have accumulated indicating that
hundreds of Americans are still alive, captives in Southeast Asia. While
Taylor is probably not one of them, one can imagine him willingly flying one
more mission to help bring them home.

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