Yarmouth, MA – June 17, 1989

Yarmouth, Massachusetts – June 17, 1989

     Late on the night of June 16, 1989, an Army National Guard UH-1 Bell Helicopter left T.F. Green State Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island, bound for Camp Edwards in Mashpee, Massachusetts.  Just after midnight on June 17, while flying in heavy fog conditions over the town of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, the helicopter went down in a wooded area behind some houses.  The aircraft cut a swath twenty feet wide and debris was thrown thirty feet in all directions.

     All six men aboard were killed.  The dead were identified as:

     1st Lt. David Joseph Hendry, 26, of Wilmington, Delaware.

     Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Bryan Pearce, 35, of Wilmington, Delaware.

     M/Sgt. Robert E. Lucey Jr., of Emporia, Virginia.

     S/Sgt. Benjamin Robert Greenplate, 40, of Newark, Delaware. 

     Sgt. Ward Arthur Cornell, 43, of Mansfield, Connecticut.

     Specialist Samuel K. May, of Richmond, Virginia.

     Hendry, Pearce, and Greenplate were all members of the Delaware Army National Guard stationed in New Castle, Delaware, and had just completed the first week of their annual two week training period at Camp Edwards.

     M/Sgt. Lucey and Specialist May were part of the 80th Maneuver Training Command of Virginia.

     Sources:

     (Fla.) Ocala Star-Banner, “National Guard Helicopter Crashes; 6 Crewmen Killed”, June 18, 1989  

     Philly.com, “Six Guardsmen Die In Helicopter Crash”, by Amy S. Rosenberg, June 18, 1989

     Los Angeles Times, “6 Killed As National Guard Copter Crashes In cape Cod Fog”, June 18, 1989

     (Ore.) The Register-Guard, “Military Helicopter Crash Probed”, June 19, 1989

 

 

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