Wade L Ellen

His boyish grin, his southern politeness, his light southern drawl and his last name are some of my fond memories I have of Wade L. Ellen.  When the TAC officers of our Warrant Officer Candidate class would call out his name (we never had first names), it made you pause just for a millisecond:  “Ellen,” they would yell.  And a male voice would answer, “Yes sir!” in a husky voice that didn’t seem to fit the persona.  

Wade L. Ellen was from Norfolk, VA; born 10/25/1951.  We graduated from our Warrant Officer class as helicopter pilots on October 5, 1951, just before he turned 21.  He had a fiancée back home and a motorcycle on base.  What more could you want, so youthful and free. 

I never saw Wade after the graduation:  we all shook hands, some hugs (we didn’t “high—five” back then), and wished each other the best:  “See ya in Nam,” we said.  Wade and the rest of our graduating class, all Warrant Officers (WO1), had assignments to Vietnam.  Some arrived in-country before the end of the year; I arrived Jan 1, 1972.  

On April 24, 1972 I was flying a Huey helicopter on missions around Cao Lanh, which lies along the mighty Mekong River, and south of the Cambodian border.  That day my crew and I flew an inspection team into a small outpost that had been overrun by the Viet Cong and we pulled a medevac for some wounded Vietnamese soldiers.  We flew for six hour and forty-five minutes and returned safely to our base.

On April 24, 1972, Wade L. Ellen was flying as a copilot in a Huey helicopter in Kon Tum Province, which lies in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam and shares borders with Laos and Cambodia.  He and his crew were sent to rescue a group of US Special Forces soldiers being overrun by the North Vietnamese.  They landed at the Tanh Canh Base Camp and picked up four survivors.  As they lifted off and started flying away, the pilot (identified as Lt. James E. Hunsicker) was shot and killed by ground fire.  WO1 Wade L. Ellen tried to recover control of the helicopter but because it was so close to the ground, it crashed and caught fire about 500 meters from where they departed in a river ravine.  Several of the occupants were able to escape and were eventually rescued.  Wade L. Ellen was killed in the crash:  his body was never recovered.  He was 21.

I was in Saigon on a mission late in 1972 when I saw a fellow classmate.  During our small talk he told me about the death of Wade L. Ellen.  That was a sad moment for me.  I didn’t think it was fair; in my mind he didn’t deserve it (not that anyone did); he was too nice, polite and just one of the good guys. 

He was our only classmate who perished; others were wounded in crashes and returned home, carrying the scars of the war.   But his family carries the scar of his loss forever; that’s why we have Memorial Day.  To remember.