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Thomas Richard Okerland |
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Thomas was born in Everett Washington on The 5th of August 1948. His home on Record Is Seattle Washington. Thomas Loyally served his nation in the 61st Assault Helicopter Company "Lucky Stars", 268th Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade. He even served in Vietnam until on January 3rd he and 6 other pilots went down in a fixed-wing aircraft, on a routine flight in 1971. The last known coordinates for the chopper were 134700N 1090630E (BR960250). |
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The chopper that he and the crew where flying was a U6 “beaver”.
Thomas held the Rank of W01 in the United States Army when he was lost in South Vietnam. As of 1973 he has been considered Missing in Action (MIA)  and classified as a category 4. The other Soldiers involved in the crash were Luis G. Holguin; Dennis W. Omelia; Patrick Magee; Carl Palen; Ferris Rhodes; Michael Parsons. All of these men Are still missing as well. There have been no new sighting reported for any of these men… |
 Seven Men.. Lost in Action... On January 3rd 1971... |
As it is told the story is this:
On January 3, 1971, Capt. Ferris A. Rhodes, Jr.
was the pilot of aU6"Beaver" (serial #52-25884), carrying six passengers: 
1Lt. Michaeld D.Parsons, WO1 Thomas R. Okerland, WO1 Dennis W. Omelia; WO1 Luis G. Holguin; SP6 PatrickJ. 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. |
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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 take off. About 14 miles southeast of Phu Cat, at 1120 hours, radio and radar contact was lost with the plane. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 thatAmericans 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 so, then someone else's brother, son, husband, father is alive. We owe them our very best effort to bring them home. |
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Name: Thomas Richard Okerland Rank/Branch: W01/US Army Unit: 61st Assault Helicopter Company "Lucky Stars", 268th AviationBattalion,17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade Date of Birth: 05 August 1948 (Everett WA) Home City of Record: Seattle WA 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: Luis G. Holguin; Dennis W. Omelia; Patrick Magee; Carl Palen; Ferris Rhodes; Michael Parsons (all missing) |
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Category 4, Unknown Knowledge A. Individuals whose time and place of incident are unknown (e.g., aircrews members downed at the unknown locations or ground personnel that were separated from their units at an unknown time or place), and B. Who do not meet criteria of categories 1 through 3. |
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Refno: 1687Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the POW NETWORK in 1998. |
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