Name: WO1 Arnold Olaf Nakkerud
Status: Killed In Action from an incident on 07/31/1967 while performing the duty of Aircraft Commander.
Age at death: 22.1
Date of Birth: 07/01/1945
Home City: Seattle, WA
Service: AV branch of the reserve component of the U.S. Army.
Unit: 189 AHC
Prior Unit: 170 AHC
Major organization: other
Flight class: 66-17
Service: AV branch of the U.S. Army.
The Wall location: 24E-056
Short Summary: Inadvertent low level IFR at night between Oasis and Holloway struck a tree in a descending left turn attempting to return to VFR.
Aircraft: UH-1H tail number 66-16529
Call sign: GHOSTRIDERS
Service number: W3154662
Country: South Vietnam
MOS: 062B = Helicopter Pilot, Utility and Light Cargo Single Rotor
Primary cause: A/C Accident WX
Major attributing cause: aircraft connected not at sea
Compliment cause: unknown
Vehicle involved: helicopter
Position in vehicle: aircraft commander
Started Tour: 12/02/1966
"Official" listing: helicopter air casualty - other aircrew
Length of service: 03
Location: Unknown Province
Additional information about this casualty:
Mr. Nakkerud was in fact in the 189th. He got married 2 or 3 weeks earlier in Hawaii and was "a real shorttimer" when he went down. He was transferred into our unit from the 170th I think, as we were new to Viet Nam then.
from David Wilkie, Sep 97
Reason: aircraft lost or crashed
Casualty type: Non-hostile - died of other causes
married male U.S. citizen
Race: Caucasian
Religion: Protestant - no denominational preference
Burial information: WASHINGTON MEMORIAL PARK, SEATTLE, WA
The following information secondary, but may help in explaining this incident.
Category of casualty as defined by the Army: non-battle dead Category of personnel: active duty Army Military class: warrant officer
This record was last updated on 09/30/1997
This information is available on CD-ROM.
Additional information is available on KIAs at http://www.coffeltdatabase.org
Please send additions or corrections to: The VHPA Webmaster Gary Roush.
KIA statistics
Return to the Helicopter Pilot KIA name list
Return to the KIA panel date index
Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023
Copyright © 1998 - 2023 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association