Name: WO1 Leonard James Sugimoto
Status: Killed In Action from an incident on 12/16/1969 while performing the duty of Pilot.
Age at death: 22.9
Date of Birth: 01/26/1947
Home City: Gardena, CA
Service: AV branch of the reserve component of the U.S. Army.
Unit: A/25 AVN 25 INF
Major organization: 25th Infantry Division
Flight class: 69-5
Service: AV branch of the U.S. Army.
The Wall location: 15W-065
Short Summary: Rotor hit ground causing crash and burn during night approach into LZ in bad weather. G E4 HARRIS survived.
Aircraft: UH-1H tail number 68-16196
Country: South Vietnam
MOS: 100B = Utility/Observation Helicopter Pilot
Primary cause: A/C Accident
Major attributing cause: aircraft connected not at sea
Compliment cause: fire or burns
Vehicle involved: helicopter
Position in vehicle: pilot
Started Tour: 05/10/1969
"Official" listing: helicopter air casualty - pilot
Location: Tay Ninh Province III Corps.
Reason: aircraft lost or crashed
Casualty type: Non-hostile - died of other causes
married male U.S. citizen
Race: Mongolain
Religion: Baptist - other groups
Burial information: GREEN HILLS MEMORIAL PARK, RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CA
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 07/29/1995
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