Name: 1LT John Clyde Thompson, Jr.
Status: Killed In Action from an incident on 08/12/1971 while performing the duty of Pilot.
Age at death: 24.0
Date of Birth: 08/16/1947
Home City: Lincoln, NE
Service: AR branch of the reserve component of the U.S. Army.
Unit: D/3/5 CAV
Major organization: 101st Airborne Division
Flight class: 71-6
Service: AR branch of the U.S. Army.
The Wall location: 03W-130
Short Summary: Returning from mission at altitude along the DMZ, flew thru GT line of 122 rocket. A/C exploded killing WO1 L.L. Kelly and blue team.
Aircraft: UH-1H tail number 67-17791
Call sign: CHARLIE HORSE
Country: South Vietnam
MOS: 6124
Primary cause: Hostile Fire
Major attributing cause: aircraft connected not at sea
Compliment cause: small arms fire
Vehicle involved: helicopter
Position in vehicle: pilot
Vehicle ownership: government
Started Tour: 05/23/1971
"Official" listing: helicopter air casualty - pilot
The initial status of this person was: non-hostile dead - died out-right
Length of service: *
Location: Quang Tri Province I Corps.
Military grid coordinates of event: XD073672
Additional information about this casualty:
John is buried in Space 6, Lot 232, Section O-2, Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, on South 14th Street, Lincoln, NE. I don't live up there. However, if there is a member who does live in Lincoln and wants to go out and take photos of the gravesite, that could enhance John's info on both the VHPA and Vietnam Memorial Wall websites.
Also, the write-up says that they were flying a high-altitude mission along the DMZ. Well, not exactly. They were flying the last light mission around Quang Tri Airbase when that rocket hit the "Jesus nut" on their rotor. I always thought that it was ironic that their "last light" was on a last light mission.
I know this stuff to be true because John and I had adjoining cubicles in our hooch. We were sitting in a water bladder cooling off when Larry Kelly came and told him that they had the last light mission. The next morning, I was tasked to go over to graves registration and identify the remains.
From: Jack Hammell
Reason: aircraft lost or crashed
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Date posted on this site:
11/13/2023
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Casualty type: Hostile - killed
married male U.S. citizen
Race: Caucasian
Religion: Lutheran (Missouri Synod)
Burial information: LINCOLN MEMORIAL PARK, LINCOLN, NE
The following information secondary, but may help in explaining this incident.
Category of casualty as defined by the Army: battle dead Category of personnel: active duty Army Military class: officer
This record was last updated on 06/07/2021