Information on U.S. Army helicopter OH-6A tail number 68-17200
The Army purchased this helicopter 0569
Total flight hours at this point: 00001614
Date: 03/30/1972 MIA-POW file reference number: 1809
Incident number: 72033025.KIA
Unit: B/7/17 CAV
South Vietnam
UTM grid coordinates: ZA045798 (To see this location on a map, go to https://legallandconverter.com/p50.html and search on Grid Reference 48PZA045798)
Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Defense Intelligence Agency Reference Notes. Defense Intelligence Agency Helicopter Loss database. Also: 1809 ()
Loss to Inventory
Crew Members:
P CPT FINCH MELVIN WAYNE RR
OB SP4 BLACKWOOD RES
REFNO Synopsis:
FINCH, MELVIN WAYNE
Remains Returned 14 August 1985
Name: Melvin Wayne Finch
Rank/Branch: O3/US Army
Unit:
Date of Birth: 10 November 1944
Home City of Record: Ft. Belvoir VA
Date of Loss: 30 March 1972
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 141627N 1074920E (ZA045798)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 1
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: OH6A
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project (919/527-8079) 01 April 1991 from one
or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Copyright
1991 Homecoming II Project.
REMARKS: DIED QUANG BINH SEPT 72 - W/US POWS
SYNOPSIS: The Hughes Aircraft OH6A "Loach" helicopter was envisioned as an
all-purpose helicopter to perform such duties as personnel or cargo transport,
light ground attack or casualty evacuation, observation, and photographic
reconnaissance. In South Vietnam, the Loach proved most effective at visual
reconnaissance, searching out signs of the enemy in even heavily defended areas.
Its crew peered through gaps in the jungle canopy in search of tracks, cooking
fires, huts, or other signs of the enemy as the light helicopter skimmed the
treetops.
Capt. Melvin W. Finch was onboard an OH6A on a combat mission in South Vietnam
on March 30, 1972. The mission was a recon of a bunker-hooch complex about 12
miles west-southwest of Kontum. During the mission, small arms fire from one of
the hooches downed the helicopter. Finch and SP4 Blackwood, also on the
aircraft, got out of the crashed helicopter alive.
Finch was dazed and injured and had blood on his face and in his eyes. As he
departed the aircraft he began running toward enemy fire. Blackwood was unable
to get his attention to alert him to run the other way. Blackwood crawled 30
meters to a nearby road and was rescued.
Melvin Finch was alive the last time he was seen, and the Department of Defense
gave him an enemy knowledge category of "1" which indicates the enemy certainly
did know his fate. However, Finch was not listed Prisoner of War, but Missing in
Action.
In February 1974, after 591 Americans had been released from prison camps in
Vietnam, released ARVN POWs reported and identified Finch and returnee Reeder as
two U.S. Army captains they had been held with before the two Americans were
moved north.
Other unspecified information indicates that Finch died in captivity with other
Americans in Quang Binh Province (just north of the DMZ) in September 1972.
Melvin Finch's final classification by the Department of Defense was Killed or
Died in Captivity. Although the U.S. is certain the Vietnamese could account for
him, they continue to deny any knowledge of him.
This record was last updated on 05/25/1998
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 KIA panel date index
Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023
Copyright © 1998 - 2023 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association