PASCHALL, RONALD PAGE 

Remains identified 04/02/94.

The symbol on the Wall was changed from a cross to a star April 30, 1994

Name: Ronald Page Paschall

Rank/Branch: E5/US Army, Unit: F Troop, 8th Cavalry, 196th Infantry Brigade

Date of Birth: 01 November 1950 (Lynnnwood WA), Home City of Record: Alderwood Manor WA

Date of Loss: 02 April 1972, Country of Loss: South Vietnam, Status (in 1973): Missing In Action

On April 2, 1972, a UH-1H helicopter from the 1st Signal Brigadewith four men on-board was
 on a direct combat support mission nearQuang Tri City, Quang Tri Province.  While searching 
for the crewof a downed U.S. Air Force aircraft, the helicopter was hit byhostile small arms
 fire and crashed.  An airborne SAR missionfailed to locate any survivors and the crew was
 declared missing inaction. In April 1972, a former People's Army of Vietnam sergeant
 reportedthe downing of a helicopter on April 1, 1972, which crashed near ananti-aircraft
 gun position in the vicinity of this loss incident.The crew was believed to have been killed 
in the crash.  In anotherreport, a former People's Army soldier reported sighting anAmerican
 POW in April 1972 who was being escorted by nurses nearthe Ben Hai River in Quang Tri 
Province.  The American was capturedfrom an aircraft shot down by People's Army forces. 
In March 1973, surviving crewman Jose M. Astorga was repatriatedalive during Operation 
Homecoming.  He reported that hostile firehit their helicopter's fuel cell which exploded,
 engulfing theirhelicopter in flames.  He believed all other crewmen died in theensuing fire
 and crash, and neither he nor any other returning POWshad any knowledge that any other
 crewmen survived into captivity. After Operation Homecoming, the other crewmen were 
declared killed in action, body not recovered based on a presumptive finding of death. 

His mother, Ruth, died in January of 1993, without ever knowing herson's fate. "It was
 always on her mind," Marvin Paschall said. "We'd be sitting herejust talking, and she'd 
say, 'I wonder,...'" They'd believed for a long time that Ron was dead, he said. The crash
 occurred just six days before he was to return home. He sent aletter to his girlfriend in
 Edmonds that day, saying he'd be home in aweek. The same day she got the letter, Army 
officers visited his parentsto say he'd disappeared. "They say the helicopter crashed,
 but didn't catch fire," Paschall said."We thought he was a priosoner, and he'd come home 
when the war wasover." But the war ended and Ron didn't come home. Later, the Paschalls 
heard from the door gunner who had ridden with Ronwhen he crashed. "He sat right here and 
told us, word for word, what happened," Paschallsaid. "He said Ron was out of the helicopter
, but another guy was stuckinside. Ron went back in after him, and the enemy started firing
 at thehelicopter. It went up in a ball of fire. The door gunner said it was sohot it took
 his breath away."
 The Army called Mr. Paschall in 1994 to say they had found his son's remains.
And after yearsof wondering and waiting, his father and his sister finally laid him to
rest in the Arlington national Cemetery in 1994.