| Date: 12 December 1971 |
| Aircraft type: C-2A Greyhound |
| Serial Number: 152793 |
| Military Unit: VRC-50 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: Cubi Point, Philippines |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Vetal Charles LaMountain, Jr. (KWF) |
| Lt(jg) Gale V Woolsey, Jr. (KWF) |
| ABH3 Richard Charles Gaynor (KWF) |
| AN James Matthew Van Bussum (KWF) |
| CTOC Donald Eugene Dickerson (KWF) |
| CTR1 Walter Ray Woods, Jr. (KWF) |
| CTM2 Gregory Karl Zeller (KWF) |
| CTO3 James Michael Coon (KWF) |
| CTOSN Stephen H Elliott (KWF) |
| CTISN John Michael Deremigio (KWF) |
| A C-2 Greyhound disappeared during a logistics flight over the South China Sea with the loss of its crew of four and six passengers. The aircraft took off from Cubi Point on a flight to Tan Son Nhut from where the six cryptologists, who were based at San Miguel, Philippines and Misawa, Japan, would be flown on to join the USS Enterprise. A search was made after the aircraft became overdue and one of the aircraft’s liferafts was found about 250 miles east of the island of Mindoro. The cause of the accident was never determined but all C-2As were grounded for several months during a lengthy investigation.
This accident happened almost a year to the day of the crash of another C-2 from VRC-50 that was lost in the Gulf of Tonkin. The names of the crew and passengers of 152793 are not recorded on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC, as the aircraft was not lost in the Vietnam Combat Zone; however, 50 years after the event attempts are still being made to rectify this. |
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