16 Jul 2005 REMEMBERED by a friend and fellow Marine, Keith N. McHenry E-mail address is not available.

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall According to the POW Network, then-Corporal Keiper was a passenger aboard an Army U-6A aircraft (tail number 54-1723) making an admin flight from Dong Ha to Danang. The aircraft and pilot, Captain Harry M. Ravenna, both belonged to the 138th Aviation Company, a signals intelligence collection unit based at Danang. Keiper's unit, Marine Air Group 16, was based at Marble Mountain Airfield, also in the Danang area. Captain Ravenna filed a visual flight plan from Dong Ha to Danang but encountered increasingly poor weather enroute. He requested an instrument flight plan while enroute and at 1430 contacted Danang Approach Control, reporting that he was flying on instruments heading 135 degrees at 3,000 feet and was about 10 minutes out of Danang. Danang Approach Control was unable to pick up Ravenna on radar and recommended that he contact Dong Ha to see if they had him in contact. Ravenna acknowledged Danang's instructions and broke radio contact with Danang. Nothing further was heard from Ravenna. Subsequent airborne search and rescue efforts failed to locate either the aircraft or the two men. Given Ravenna's heading and altitude at last contact, and the fact that he was flying in cloud, it was thought the aircraft might have crashed on the northwestern slopes of the mountains just north of Danang. The jungled hills were occupied by NVA and VC units, making a comprehensive ground search impractical. The two men were classed as Missing and were carried in that status until the respective Service Secretaries approved Presumptive Findings of Death - Ravenna on 03 June 1975 and Keiper on 04 Jan 1978. Their remains have not been repatriated.

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