DIETSCH, CHARLES EDWARD

Name: Charles Edward Dietsch

Rank/Branch: W3/US Army

Unit: 243rd Assault Helicopter Company,
10th Combat Aviation Battalion

Date of Birth: 08 May 1922 (Avalon NY)

Home City of Record: Mt. Dora FL

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: Jerry G. Bridges; 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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