Michael Frank Dean
Staff Sergeant
38TH ARRS, 3RD ARRG, 7TH AF
United States Air Force
13 September 1946 - 30 June 1970
La Puente, California
Panel 09W Line 103

30 June 1970 - MASTER SERGEANT PAUL L. JENKINS/STAFF SERGEANT MICHAEL F. DEAN.  Sergeants Jenkins and Dean are crewmembers on an HH-53, Jolly 54 from the 40th ARRS, Udorn RTAFB, Thailand.  They are attempting to rescue the pilot of an OV-10, Nail 44, that has gone down in Laos.  Earlier attempts by a Jolly from the 37th ARRS at Da Nang AB, RVN have been unsuccessful.  On their second attempt to rescue the survivor, they encounter heavy ground fire from all sides.  Attempting to exit the area, their helicopter, so badly damaged by enemy fire, inverts and crashes in a fireball.  Secondary explosions further destroy the craft and dash any hopes for survivors.  Many hours later, Sergeant Jules Smith, aboard an HH-3 from Da Nang is able to penetrate the scene by hoist and rescue the downed Nail 44 crewmember.  Three days of search and rescue efforts end when photographic reconnaissance rules out any possibility of survivors.

He has been and will always be my hero.
Michael Frank Dean was my father. God bless him...

From his son,
SFC Dennis (Dean) Higa
Platoon Leader
1st Platoon, Delta Co.
2/299 Infantry, 29BCT
Baghdad, Iraq
higad042@hawaii.rr.com

The OV-10 had gone down in heavily forested, rugged mountains about 3 miles west of the Lao/South Vietnamese border and 12 miles south of the demilitarized zone (DMZ).

A second FAC in the vicinity heard SFC Mosiello's emergency beeper and made radio contact with the downed observer. He then initiated Search and Rescue operations.

A HH-53C JOLLY GREEN helicopter (68-08283) from the 40th Air Rescue/Recovery Squadron (ARRS) at Udorn RTAFB, Thailand, was immediately dispatched to the area of loss. The HH-53 crew consisted of

• Captain Leroy C. Schaneberg, pilot;
• Major John W. Goeglein, co-pilot;
• MSgt Paul L. Jenkins, pararescueman;
• SSgt Marvin E. Bell, flight engineer; and
• SSgt Michael F. Dean, pararescueman (38th ARRS).

Although nightfall was approaching, a second effort was staged using a helicopter from Danang and A-1E SANDYs for fire suppression. SFC Mosiello was picked up. In his debriefing statement, SFC Mosiello stated a belief that Captain Sanders had been killed by the AAA hit and that he did not see Sanders eject or another parachute deploy.

Search efforts for Captain Sanders and the HH-53 crew continued through the next day, but no beepers were heard, no contact with the downed aircrew was made, and there were no visual sightings of survivors. SAR efforts were terminated and the six men were listed as Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered.

In December 1992, a US/Lao team surveyed and excavated the HH-53 crash site. Human remains were recovered and on 7 March 1995 the US government identified the remains as those of the five HH-53 aircrewmen. Efforts to locate the OV-10 crash site were unsuccessful due to the terrain and dense jungle.

Note:  Former pararescueman Wayne Fisk, while a member of the Defense Intelligence Agency at an American Embassy, had access to information pertaining to enemy ground events during the Jenkins-Dean shoot down as well as the search and eventual repatriation of the Jolly 54 crew remains.  He relates the following: 

Being the embassy's primary point of contact for all PW/MIA information collected in-country, and in regular contact with key Agency personnel in its Washington PW/MIA office, it was logical that discussions would eventually center upon such personal incidents as Jolly 54.  One day in '93, an inner contact phones to say a recovery had located '54's crash site, but seasonal monsoons were forthcoming and operations had to be suspended until the following dry season. 

Then, in early '94, I receive another call:  the site has been excavated and evidence of full crew remains obtained.  A short time later, I was made privy to a number of interesting details of the incident, by way of a former North Vietnamese Army officer who had been in the immediate vicinity during the shoot down and who, in 1991, was willing to tell our personnel his recollections. 

He was an NVA fuels and POL (petroleum, oil, and lubricants) officer, part of a large Pathet Lao/NVA contingency located where the incident occurred.  Obviously, he was a combatant, and at this particular time, very interested in not getting killed as the Sandy's softened up his area precursory to the arrival of Jolly 54.  He had already participated in the shoot down of the OV-10 that was '54's objective.  The SAR force knew the area was "hot," hence, the intense preparatory work. He apparently had a ringside seat and watched as '54 raced into view, straight into the sights of strategically placed 37mms of Company 3, 35th Battalion, Group 559.  Immediately, it was brought under lethal fire.  Equally immediately it rolled over and crashed in flames just west of Highway 16.  The Sandy's tore into the area with renewed vengeance. 

Eventually, the aircraft leave, and in the silence of the aftermath, he is able to approach the fiery, gutted remains of the Jolly.  In the confines of the wreckage, he sees the remains of all five crewmen.  His time on-scene is short as another wave of American aircraft soon descends and blasts his comrades' entrenched gun positions. 

In the hours and days that follow, a wartime Pathet Lao radio broadcast boasts of the Jolly kill and of three other U.S. aircraft; the OV-10, and A-7A; and an F-4E.  It states almost all personnel have been killed or wounded.  This "almost" caveat is accurately reported as the OV-10 driver was later recovered by DaNang's birds. 

In the following years, the area continues to suffer the affects of the war and is often visited by indigenous personnel who scavenge metal from the crash site.  Then, in December 1991, the NVA officer, apparently in response to communist efforts to locate knowledgeable individuals who possess information about U.S. casualties in SEA, comes forth to offer his assistance.  He provides the information which leads to the formation of a March 1993 joint U.S./Lao survey team that locates the crash site.  Concurrently, Group 559's account is acquired in the form of a five-page, handwritten record summary of U.S. and Allied aircraft claimed to have been shot down during the 1965-75 period.  It confirms the downing of a Jolly Green on 30 June 1970.  Interestingly enough, it claims to have hosed two Jollies.  The document reads: Two helicopters were hit with 37mm by Company 1,   35th Battalion at 1215 and 1530 hours.  Killed: five Americans and eight local soldiers. 

U.S. archives reveal that, indeed, another Jolly Green was battle damaged on that day:  it was Jolly Green 24 from DaNang, which had received ground fire. 

In December 1993, the joint U.S./Lao recovery team, previously mentioned, excavates the site.  It finds 132 small bone fragments; a dental bridge; enough J-1 parachute canopy releases to comprise five parachutes; and a dog tag.  The remains are flown to the recovery team's primary staging area, then on to Hawaii.  There they undergo an extensive identification process, and on 29 March 1995, they are officially released.  The men now rest in Arlington National Cemetery.