PALEN, CARL ANTHONY "MY ADOPTED POW/MIA"
Name: Carl Anthony Palen
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army
Unit: 61st Assault Helicopter Company "Lucky Stars",
268th Aviation
Battalion,
17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade
Date of
Birth: 11 March 1947
Home City of Record: Dubuque IA
Date of Loss: 03 January 1971
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 134700N 1090630E (BR960250)
Status
(in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: U6 "Beaver"
Other Personnel In Incident: Thomas R. Okerlund;
Dennis W. Omelia; Patrick Magee; Luis G. Holguin;
Ferris Rhodes; Michael Parsons (all missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: On January 3, 1971, Capt. Ferris A. Rhodes,
Jr.
was the pilot of a
U6
"Beaver" (serial #52-25884),
carrying six
passengers:
1Lt. Michaeld D. Parsons
WO1 Thomas R. Okerland
WO1 Dennis W. Omelia
WO1
Luis G. Holguin
SP6 Patrick
J. Magee
and SP5 Carl A. Palen
This was an
administrative support flight from
Qui Nhon to Ban Me Thuot, South Vietnam,
to
collect
replacement helicopters for
the company.
Some of the men aboard were
helicopter
pilots, and would fly the
choppers back to the base at Qui Nhon.
The U6 "Beaver" is an older, fixed wing aircraft of
reasonable size (bigger than a "Bird Dog",
for
instance), rather short and squatty with a somewhat
wide
body.
The aircraft departed Qui Nhon at about
0900
hours on January 3 without
filing a proper flight plan, nor was the weather
briefing obtained prior to takeoff.
About 14
miles
southeast of Phu Cat, at 1120 hours, radio and radar
contact was lost with the plane.
Because Capt. Rhodes had announced plans to remain
overnight at Ban Me Thuot,
no immediate searches were made.
By January 9,
when
Rhodes and his passengers
still had not returned,
search efforts were begun at
0900 hours, and continued
throughout the day with no sign of the aircraft or
its personnel.
The area of takeoff was tricky and the weather
conditions were not good.
Other
pilots said that if planes taking off did not reach a
safe altitude fast enough, they would crash into a
mountain.
Cruising speed for the "Beaver" was a
mere
106 mph making it a prime target for flak.
Conditions
in the area indicated that the aircraft was shot
down, and several years passed before the
crew was finally declared dead.
Evidence mounts that Americans are still alive in
Southeast Asia.
It is not known for sure if any
of
the crew of the U6 survived and are among them, but
there is no evidence that they are dead.
If they
survived, they could still be
alive.
If not, then someone else's brother, son,
husband, father is alive.
We
owe them our very best effort to bring them
home!!