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HASLETT – On March 16, 1962, 93 U.S. Army soldiers and 11 crew members aboard Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 went missing over the Pacific Ocean during the early years of the Vietnam War.
What happened to Flight 739 and its exact mission are still unknown and that uncertainty has barred the men from recognition on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
But 59 years after Flight 739 disappeared, a granite monument erected on balsam fir tip land in Columbia Falls, Maine, gave them overdue recognition.
Sgt. Melvin Lewis Hatt, an Army Ranger from Lansing, was among the soldiers on the flight. His daughter, Donna Ellis Cornell, drove from Haslett to Columbia Falls at the invitation of Wreaths Across America for the May 15 unveiling.
New monument honors members of missing flight
COLUMBIA FALLS On a sunny Saturday, under a bright blue sky, a crowd that included families, military members and veterans gathered at Worcester Wreath Co.’s balsam tip land to honor their fallen, specifically those from Flying Tiger Line Flight 739.
The plane, destined for Vietnam on a secret mission, mysteriously disappeared after taking off March 16, 1962. On board were 93 U.S. Army members, 11 crew members and three South Vietnamese soldiers who were never heard from again.
Because of the circumstances of the mission, including the fact that it occurred outside a combat zone, the names of those on board were never added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., explained Sean Sullivan, a spokesman for Wreaths Across America (WAA).
Soldiers who perished in 1962 on secret mission to Vietnam are memorialized 2 hours ago John Williams, of Peru, Ind., left, and his sisters, Maria McCauley, of Branson, Mo., center, and Susie Linale, of Omaha, Neb., pose at a monument to honor the military passengers of Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, Saturday, May 15, 2021, in Columbia Falls, Maine. Their father, SFC Albert Williams Jr., was among those killed on the secret mission to Vietnam in 1962. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP) PORTLAND, Maine Nearly 60 years ago, dozens of soldiers assembled for a top secret mission to Vietnam, three years before President Lyndon Johnson officially sent U.S. combat troops to the country.
He knew something : The 1962 flight of Army Rangers that vanished into thin air
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WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
The March 15, 1962, night shift started like any other aboard the Standard Oil super tanker Lenzen.
The ship and its crew were cutting through the waters between Guam and the Philippines. It was calm on the seas and in the skies. Above, scattered clouds floated pale across the inky blackness. About 1:30 a.m., the night watchman spotted what looked like a vapor trail high above him. When he spoke later to investigators, he said it appeared to be moving in an east-west direction. He tracked it until it passed behind a cloud. Then, something exploded.