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1989-11-11
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DeCAIRE, JACK LEONARD
Name: Jack Leonard DeCaire
Rank/Branch: E6/US Army
Unit: HHC, 1st TC Battaion, USNS Corpus Christi Bay, 34th General Support Group
Date of Birth: 24 April 1946 (Ashtabula OH)
Home City of Record: St. Petersburg FL
Date of Loss: 03 November 1971
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 102335N 1070250E (YS241495)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ship
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: The 1st Transportation Battalion (Aircraft Maintenance Depot,
Seaborne) was a unique augmentation of the U.S. Army helicopter maintenance
capability. Based on a converted Navy seaplane tender, the USNS CORPUS CHRISTI
BAY, the ship and battalion became a mobile maintenance facility equivalent to
a major rebuilding facility. Through such efforts as those of the 1st
Transportation Battalion, the U.S. Army was able to maintain helicopters in
numbers sufficient to meet the full range of combat operations.
On November 3, 1971, SP6 Jack L. DeCaire and other members of Headquarters
Company, 1st TC Battalion returned from pass to Dung Tau, South Vietnam to the
USNS CORPUS CHRISTI BAY.
A companion reported that as he and SP6 DeCaire was somewhat intoxicated, they
decided to go to the aircraft flight deck to talk. While there, SP6 DeCaire
went to the starboard of the ship to relieve himself, and fell overboard.
DeCaire's companion saw him in the water and summoned help immediately.
Although a life boat was launched, attempts to locate him in the darkness were
unsuccessful. Searches continued for the next 36 hours without ever a sign of
SP6 DeCaire.
DeCaire's is one of the unfortunate accidental deaths that occur wherever
people are. The fact that he died an accidental death in the midst of a war is
tragically ironic. He is listed among the missing with honor, because his body
was never found to be returned to the country he served.
Others who are missing do not have such clear cut cases. Some were known
captives; some were photographed as they were led by their guards. Some were in
radio contact with search teams, while others simply disappeared.
Since the war ended, over 250,000 interviews have been conducted with those who
claim to know about Americans still alive in Southeast Asia, and several
million documents have been studied. U.S. Governmetn experts cannot seem to
agree whether Americans are there alive or not. Distractors say it would be far
too politically difficult to bring the men they believe to be alive home, and
the U.S. is content to negotiate for remains.
Over 1000 eye-witness reports of living American prisoners were received by
1989. Most of them are still classified. If, as the U.S. seems to believe, the
men are all dead, why the secrecy after so many years? If the men are alive,
why are they not home?