This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Sheila Rae Myers, HM3
to remember
Beck, Terry Lee, AME3.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Linesville, PA
Last Address Linesville, PA
Casualty Date Oct 02, 1969
Cause Non Hostile- Body Not Recovered
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Sea
Location Tonkin Gulf
Conflict Vietnam War
Location of Interment Buried at Sea, Pacific Ocean
I happened to come across your page when I googled C2A.
For what it's worth, I was a member of VRC50 at the time and often made those same trips. I knew the pilots and crew members on that flight, and the events haunt me to this day. It's been a long time, but what I can remember about the incident was that the C2A crashed into the sea without warning on approach to the ship. Herb Dilger was considered by many to be the best pilot in the squadron. If anyone could handle such a situation, Herb could have.
Again, it's been a long time, so there are sure to be gaps in my memory, but if you don't know the following . . . There was a number of problems with the C2A. One of the acknowledged problems was props coming off the engine in-fight. After one of these crashes (there were more than one) they were all grounded. I seem to remember that the general scuttlebutt about this problem was that the engine mounts were faulty. This supposedly was discovered after they were tested (magnafluxed). Another thing that I seem to remember was that it was later discovered that the C2A was never officially properly flight tested.
I don't know if any of this is new information to you, but I thought you should know about this.
