More detail on this person: Formed the 10th
Combat Aviation Battalion. This information was last updated 08/24/2018
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Date posted on this site:
03/10/2024
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Dad was killed in a farming accident on October
21st 1973. After his Nam tour, he worked at CDC
at Ft. Belvoir under Lt General Harry O. Kinnard
until he retired in December of 1968. He loved
the First Air Cav and was proud of his affiliation
with the superior men who served with him.
Dad was selected for promotion to brigadier and
was given orders to return to Vietnam as the chief
of staff for the First Air Cav in 1968. My mom
held him to his promise that he would never leave
her unaccompanied again and so he retired with 26
years of service. He bought a 160 acre corn and
soybean farm in northwest Iowa within a mile of my
mom's family farm. He spent a year remodeling the
farmhouse and out buildings and rented the land to
a tenant. He assisted the tenant in spring and
fall, became the head of the county Republican
party, took agronomy classes at the local junior
college with his G.I. bill benefits and obtained a
30% V.A. disability rating for his hearing loss
flying helicopters. He was killed on the home
acreage unloading a wagon of soybeans into a bin
with an auger. His sleeve was caught by a
knuckle on the power take-off shaft and his neck
was broken instantly. My mom and my 13 year old
sister found him a little while later.
Thanks for remembering him, Greg Olney II