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| Name: | Marvin Maurice Leonard |
| Rank/Branch: | W2/US Army |
| Unit | 159th Aviation Battalion, 101st Airborne Division |
| Date of Birth (DOB): | 01 February 1936 (Detroit, MI) |
| Home City of Record: | Grand Rapids, MI |
| Loss Date: | 15 February 1971 |
| Country of Loss: | Laos |
| Loss Coordinates: | 163836N 1062558E (XD528405) |
| Status (in 1973): | Killed/Body Not Recovered |
| Category: | 3 |
| Acft/Vehicle/Ground: | CH47C |
| Refno: | 1703 |
| Other Personnel in Incident: | Donald E. Crone; Barry F. Fivelson; John L. Powers; Willis C. Crear; James H. Taylor (all missing) |
| Source: | Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 1990 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 P.O.W. NETWORK 2002. |
| Remarks: EXPLODE - NO SURV OBS AIR - J | |
| Synopsis: Lam Son 719 was a large-scale offensive against enemy communications lines which was conducted in that part of Laos adjacent to the two northern provinces of South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese would provide and command ground forces, while U.S. forces would furnish airlift and supporting fire. Phase I, renamed Operation Dewey Canyon II, involved an armored attack by the U.S. from Vandegrift base camp toward Khe Sanh, while the ARVN moved into position for the attack across the Laotian border. Phase II began with an ARVN helicopter assault and armored brigade thrust along Route 9 into Laos. ARVN ground troops were transported by American helicopters, while U.S. Air Force provided cover strikes around the landing zones. On February 15, 1971, during one of these maneuvers, a CH47 helicopter was assigned the task of ferrying a load of gasoline into Savannakhet Province, Laos. The crew of the aircraft consisted of SP4 Donald E. Crone, crew chief; CWO Marvin M. Leonard, pilot; SP4 Willis C. Crear, door gunner; SP4 John L. Powers, flight engineer; 2Lt. James H. Taylor, aircraft commander. WO Barry F. Fivelson was a passenger onboard the aircraft. During the mission, the aircraft was hit by enemy fire and began to lose altitude. During the descent, the sling load apparently exploded, causing the helicopter to explode, break into pieces, and crash. Observers later said that the helicopter seemed disoriented and that it had overflown the nearest friendly location by several miles and had descended in enemy-held territory about 10 miles southeast of Sepone. According to the U.S. Army, air searches conducted within minutes of the crash revealed no sign of survivors. However, according to information given to family members, the aerial search failed to find evidence of a crash. A ground search was not possible because of hostile threat in the area. (Note also that Defense Department data remarks indicates that a crash site was found and that no survivors were observed from the air.) The men aboard the CH47 were all classified Killed/Body Not Recovered. The families maintain there is still a mystery surrounding the crash of the aircraft, and they would like to know the whole truth. Proof of the deaths of Powers, Fivelson, Taylor, Crear, Crone and Leonard was never found. No remains came home; none was released from prison camp. They were not blown up, nor did they sink to the bottom of the ocean. Someone knows what happened to them. The personnel aboard the CH47 are among nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos. The communist Lao stated on several occasions that they held American prisoners, but as the U.S. did not recognize the Pathet Lao as a legitimate government, we never negotiated with them for their release. Consequently, not one man held in Laos was ever released. Were it not for thousands of reports relating to Americans still held captive in Southeast Asia today, the families of the CH47 helicopter crew might be able to believe their men died with their aircraft. But until proof exists that they died, or they are brought home alive, they will wonder and wait. How long must they wait before we bring our men home? ========================= Vietnam War chopper crash victims remembered; Michigan pilot's body missing Saturday, March 2, 2002 By Mike Magner Washington Bureau ARLINGTON, Va. -- Back in 1970, the year before he became a casualty of the Vietnam War, Marvin M. Leonard took his Michigan family to Arlington National Cemetery to walk among the graves of America's heroes. "He always wanted to be buried at Arlington," said Leonard's widow, Grand Rapids native Doris Leonard-Scott. "Even if I don't ever see it, maybe my children or their children will." Leonard-Scott, her two daughters and her son saw the next best thing Friday, as their late husband and father was memorialized at a burial service for four men who died with Leonard and another still-missing Army officer when their helicopter was downed in Laos on Feb. 15, 1971. The bodies of Chief Warrant Officer Leonard, a 35-year-old Detroiter piloting the Chinook helicopter on a supply mission into a firefight when it exploded, and 2nd Lt. James H. Taylor, birthplace unknown, have not been found. Remains of the four others were recovered on a remote mountain in Laos in 1998. After a meticulous effort to identify the remains at an Army laboratory in Hawaii, the four were finally laid to rest together with full military honors on a beautiful, sunny morning. All six names will be carved on the granite slab that will mark the grave: Leonard; Taylor; Warrant Officer Barry F. Fivelson, of Evanston, Ill.; Spc. Willis C. Crear, of Birmingham, Ala.; Spc. Donald E. Crone, of Dover, Ohio; and Spc. John L. Powers, of Idaho Falls, Iowa. Below their names it will simply state: "Downed Aircraft." After a 20-minute chapel service, a flag-draped casket containing the remains rolled through the cemetery on a caisson pulled by six brown horses, three of them riderless. "Today we have the privilege of honoring six heroes of our freedom who paid the ultimate price," Army chaplain Maj. Claude Crisp told about 30 survivors of the six men at the grave site, only a few hundred yards from the side of the Pentagon that was hit by terrorists in September. Seven members of the Third Infantry honor guard each fired three rifle shots of salute, a lone trumpeter played "Taps" and the Army band played "America the Beautiful." Each of the men's closest relatives, including Leonard-Scott, then received folded flags to remember their fallen loved ones. The ceremony provided some sense of closure to Leonard's family, though it wasn't complete. "I feel we have a place to go now," said Leonard's daughter, Gayleen Leonard of Big Rapids. "The Wall is not very intimate." Leonard's name is carved on the Vietnam Wall that honors the 58,169 U.S. military members killed in the war. Each of Leonard's family members had gone there before to touch and trace his name, but never together as a family -- until Friday afternoon. "There will be more of a sense of closure for me when we can all go to The Wall today," Doris Leonard-Scott said as the family prepared to make the visit. With Leonard-Scott, who now lives in Alto, N.M., were Gayleen; daughter Tambria Leonard-Whitman of Lansing; son Mark; Leonard's closest cousin, Brenda Nowack of Grand Rapids; and Leonard's oldest sister, Elsie Chamberlain of Belleville. All of them remembered Leonard as a fun-loving swashbuckler with undying patriotism. "We always wanted to bring him back," Gayleen Leonard said after the service. "This was such a place of honor for him." She and her sister helped the military find their father's crash site by digging through defense archives for old war records. Doris Leonard-Scott recalled her first meeting with Leonard on a blind date to Lake Michigan that led to their 15-year marriage. "He looked at me and said, 'You're going to be my wife,'" she said. Suddenly she remembered something else. "It was on this date (March 1) in 1957 that Marvin and I had twins who died the same day," Leonard-Scott said. "I'm not sure why, but it's all coming together." |
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All Biographical and loss information on POWs provided by OpJC have been supplied by Chuck and Mary Schantag of POWNET. Please check with POWNET regularly for updates. |
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| MARVIN MAURICE LEONARD CWO - W2 - Army - Reserve 101st Airborne Division 35 year old Married, Caucasian, Male Born on Feb 01, 1936 From GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN His tour of duty began on Feb 15, 1971 Casualty was on Feb 15, 1971 LAOS Hostile, died while missing HELICOPTER - PILOT AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND Body was not recovered Religion - CONGREGATIONAL CHRISTIAN Panel 05W - - Line 107 |
| Source: The VietNam Veterans' Memorial Wall Page. |
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