Name: LT Dennis William Peterson
Status: Remains were returned on 03/30/12 from an incident on 07/19/1967 while performing the duty of Pilot.
Age at death: 28.1
Date of Birth: 06/28/1939
Home City: Huntington Park, CA
Service: regular component of the U.S. Navy.
Unit: HS-2
Service: U.S. Navy.
The Wall location: 23E-092
Short Summary: North Vietnam. See Frye and crewmen Jackson and McCrane.
Aircraft: SH-3A tail number 151538
Service number: 660896
Country: North Vietnam
MOS: 1310 = Unrestricted Line Officer (Pilot)
Primary cause: NVN-BNR
"Official" listing: helicopter air casualty - pilot
Length of service: 04
Military grid coordinates of event: WH814646
Additional information about this casualty:
Soldiers Missing From Vietnam War Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that a Navy pilot, missing from the Vietnam War, has been accounted for and will be buried with full military honors along with his crew.
Navy Lt. Dennis W. Peterson of Huntington Park, Calif., was the pilot of a SH-3A helicopter that crashed in Ha Nam Province, North Vietnam. Peterson was accounted for on March 30, 2012. Also, aboard the aircraft was Ensign Donald P. Frye of Los Angeles, Calif.; Aviation Antisubmarine Warfare Technicians William B. Jackson of Stockdale, Texas; and Donald P. McGrane of Waverly, Iowa. The crew will be buried, as a group, on May 2 at Arlington National Cemetery.
On July 19, 1967, the four servicemen took off from the USS Hornet aboard an SH-3A Sea King helicopter, on a search and rescue mission looking for a downed pilot in Ha Nam Province, North Vietnam. During the mission, an enemy concealed 37mm gun position targeted the helicopter as it flew in. The helicopter was hit by the anti-aircraft gunfire, causing the aircraft to lose control, catch fire and crash, killing all four servicemen.
In October 1982, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) repatriated five boxes of remains to U.S. officials. In 2009, the remains within the boxes were identified as Frye, Jackson, and McGrane.
In 1993, a joint U.S./S.R.V. team, investigated a loss in Ha Nam Province. The team interviewed local villagers who identified possible burial sites linked to the loss. One local claimed to have buried two of the crewmen near the wreckage, but indicated that both graves had subsequently been exhumed.
Between 1994 and 2000, three joint U.S./S.R.V. teams excavated the previous site and recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage that correlated to the crew's SH-3A helicopter. In 2000, U.S. personnel excavated the crash site recovering additional remains. Analysis from the Joint POW/MIA Command Central Identification Laboratory subsequently designated these additional remains as the co-mingled remains of all four crewmen, including Peterson.
DoD scientists used forensic tools and circumstantial evidence in the identification of the remains.
For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1420.
U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense
Reason: aircraft lost or crashed
Casualty type: Hostile - died while missing
married male U.S. citizen
Race: Caucasian
Religion: Protestant - no denominational preference
Burial information: ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, VA (GROUP)
This record was last updated on 05/01/2013
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Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023
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