Twenty-three U.S. airmen, seen here shortly before takeoff at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base on May 13, 1975, died when their helicopter crashed during the last battle of the Vietnam War. A memorial bearing their names and faces is being dedicated at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland's Security Forces Museum on Oct. 10, 2024. (U.S. Air Force)
Nearly two dozen U.S. airmen who perished in a helicopter crash during the last battle of the Vietnam War will receive the recognition that has escaped them for almost 50 years, with two stateside tributes in the works.
A 12,000-pound granite memorial bearing the 23 men’s faces and names is set to be unveiled Oct. 10 at the Security Forces Museum at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. A second is slated to be installed at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona next year.
“I think it is fantastic that someone cares enough to recognize them and their sacrifices,” said Luther Hankamer II, a retired Air Force master sergeant and brother of Knife 13 passenger Sgt. Gregory Hankamer.
A memorial honoring the 23 U.S. airmen killed in a helicopter crash during the Mayaguez Incident on May 13, 1975, is being dedicated at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland's Security Forces Museum on Oct. 10, 2024. (Jerry Nelson)
Knife 13 was the call sign of the ill-fated CH-53C Sea Stallion that crashed on May 13, 1975, the second day of a standoff between the U.S. and recently victorious Khmer Rouge communists that was dubbed the Mayaguez Incident.
“I had lost several friends in Vietnam but never a close family member, and it was the hardest time of my life to that point,” Hankamer said.
The fallen consisted of 18 members of the 56th Security Police Squadron and a five-man crew from the 21st Special Operations Squadron. Their helicopter broke up in flight over northeastern Thailand, killing everyone aboard, according to a copy of the Air Force crash report.
The aircraft was on its way to a staging area to prepare for an assault on a captured American cargo vessel, the SS Mayaguez.
The day before the crash, Khmer Rouge sailors had commandeered the ship about 2 miles from Cambodian territory. The vessel was traveling from Saigon to Sattahip, Thailand, with an undisclosed U.S. government and military cargo.
The crew was separated from the ship, which was parked near Koh Tang island, about 30 miles southwest of the Cambodian mainland. President Gerald Ford mobilized Air Force, Navy and Marine units to take the ship back.
Knife 13 crashed on its way to U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Base, killing everyone on board. After the crash, U.S. military planners instead called on Marines to retake the ship.
The ensuing battle on heavily fortified Koh Tang claimed the lives of an additional 18, including three Marines who were left behind and executed after the battle.
Relatives of six or seven of the Knife 13 crash victims will be in attendance at the first dedication, including Luther Hankamer and Greg’s daughter, Sondra.
Hankamer was a talented trumpet player, smart and well-liked, his brother recalled. He was the baby of the family and his death devastated their parents. Luther was training at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi when he got the news.
The two memorials are the brainchild of Jerry Nelson, a retired Air Force master sergeant who in 2022 was visiting the 56th Security Forces Squadron at Luke Air Force Base. He’d been stationed in Thailand and knew some of the airmen on the mission.
“I said, ‘Where’s the monument?’” said Nelson, the former president of the Vietnam Security Police Association. “I was informed there’s not one.”
The association is a tax-exempt organization dedicated to veterans who served as Air Force policemen and augmentees in Vietnam and Thailand between July 1, 1958, and May 15, 1975, according to its website.
Nelson wrote a talking paper saying what he intended to build and began rallying volunteers and raising funds. Through the association’s website, the group has thus far raised about half of the $100,000 needed to pay for both memorials.
Historians from the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama approved the memorials in May.
The Luke monument has been verbally agreed to and now just awaits the signature of Brig. Gen. David Berkland, commander of the 56th Fighter Wing.
These airmen “kind of get forgotten,” Nelson said. “Everyone talks about the Marines, and I just think it’s a wonderful thing to recognize these guys.
“They were going into battle for their country, and there’s no greater honor in the world than to do that,” he added. “We need to honor them.”
