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Contact Info
Home Town Abingdon, VA
Last Address Abingdon, VA
MIA Date Nov 12, 1967
Cause Non Hostile- Died while Missing
Reason Drowned, Suffocated
Location Tonkin Gulf
Conflict Vietnam War
Memorial Coordinates 29E 085
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Following six months of normal operations along the East Coast and in the West Indies, William V. Pratt departed Mayport on 20 June 1967 for her only deployment to the western Pacific during the American involvement in the Vietnamese civil war. En route, she transited the Panama Canal and made port calls at San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Guam before arriving in Subic Bay in the Philippines on 28 July. Early in August, she departed the Philippines for the Gulf of Tonkin and duty on the northern sea-air rescue (SAR) station. She relieved USS BerkeleyTemplate:WP Ships USS instances on 12 August and remained on station in the gulf until early in September.
On 12 Nov 1967 USS WILLIAM V. PRATT (DLG 13) was preparing for helicopter operations from the helo platform on her stern. The ship was rolling in heavy seas when a 20-foot wave swept over the main deck and carried three men from the handling party overboard.
The ship immediately turned to recover the men while at the same time requesting a helicopter from another ship to assist. One man was quickly spotted and rescued. Five additional ships and two helicopters joined the search for the remaining men but failed to locate either one. The two men lost at sea were SFM2 James D. Roark and Seaman John D. Cayce of San Antonio, Texas.
This Sailor has an (IMO) Memory Of Headstone in Courts of the Missing, Honolulu, Hawaii
Description Dixie Station was established in the South China Sea off the Mekong Delta May 15, 1965 to August 3, 1966 as a single-carrier counterpart to the multi-carrier Yankee Station, which was located further north near the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin and was responsible for strikes on North Vietnamese targets.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
May / 1965
To Month/Year
August / 1966
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories After upkeep in Subic Bay, she headed back to the Gulf of Tonkin late in the month to take up duty on the south SAR station. That tour of duty lasted until the latter part of November