Pacific Stars and Stripes information
for 54 MED DET
For date 680717
54 MED DET was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Quang Tin Province, I Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Chu Lai
Description: Takes Newlyweds to Honeymoon Hut
Photo - The door gunner came dressed for the occasion as his chopper lifts newlyweds CWO Don Sewell and Capt. Patricia Mann to their new home at Chu Lai.
Copter Gives Cupid a Lift
CHU LAI, Vietnam (UPI) - A helicopter that usually lifts wounded men from battle Saturday carried a pair of newlyweds to their honeymoon hut, and the pilot could not have been happier. In his months in South Vietnam, CWO 2 Norman Shanahan, 22, of Jacksonville, Fla., has been shot down twice while trying to remove wounded Americans from the fighting zone. Each time CWO 2 Don Sewell, 22, of San Antonio, swooped out of the sky to rescue him. Shanahan returned the favors Saturday. He chauffeured Sewell and his new wife, Capt. Patricia H. Mann, 24, an Army nurse, of Washington, to their new home and a gala reception. The bride wore white and the helicopter had "just married" painted on its nose. Green and yellow clouds from smoke grenades heralded the couple's passage and those on the ground cheered. It was the first marriage between Americans at this forward combat base, and all agreed it could not have happened to better people. Sgt. 1.C. Carnello Arria volunteered to cook the food for the reception and Chaplain Donald Kinney, of Syracuse, N.Y., obtained South Vietnamese Boy Scouts to act as altar boys for the church service. Maj. Patrick Brady of Seattle, Wash., agreed to be the best man and Maj. Kenneth Cass, of Waterbury, Conn., gave the bride away. First Lt. Kathleen Waguespack, of Raceland, La., was the bridesmaid. "I roomed with Sewell through flight school and he has pulled me out twice after I was shot down," Shanahan said. "It was real great flying him from his wedding. A house resting on a bluff above the South China Sea reflects what the other men of the 54th Medical Evac. Det. think of the Silver Star winning helicopter ambulance pilots. It is a three-room affair decked with air conditioners and stereo. "It is fantastic," Sewell's new wife said. "It has everything a bride could want." This will be the home of Sewell and his wife who works as a nurse at the 2nd Surgical Hospital for the next nine months. "The people in the unit scrounged all the materials for the house and guilt it," Sewell said. "It was a fine wedding present." Even with the rank difference, however, there is no question who will be the boss of the household. "I am only the Mrs.," the captain said. "He (the warrant officer) wears the pants."
Comments: CW2 Sewell, Don; ; ;
CPT Mann, Patricia H.; ; ;
CW2 Shanahan, Norman; ; ;
SFC Arria, Carnello; ; ;
*** Kinney, Donald; ; ;
MAJ Brady, Patrick; ; ;
MAJ Cass, Kenneth; ; ;
1LT Waguespack, Kathleen; ; ;
The source for this information was 6807PSS.AVN supplied by Les Hines
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Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023