Lebanon Vietnam hero honored during Vietnam Veterans Day Ceremony

The names of 411 Vietnam veterans who died during their service were read aloud during a ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 542 in Harrisburg, honoring their sacrifice.

Local veterans and lawmakers met for the ceremony held on Wednesday as a part of a Vietnam Veterans Day event.

All veterans honored during the ceremony were from the nine counties -- Adams, Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, Schuylkill and York -- that surround the Lebanon VA Medical Center.

Along with having his name called , a plaque was awarded in the memory of WO1 John Stephan Chrin.

Chrin was a Lebanon native who enlisted in U.S. Army in 1970. After finishing flight school, he volunteered for advanced training as a medical evacuation pilot. While serving overseas, he became a member of the DUSTOFF rescue team.

DUSTOFF crews made nearly 500,000 trips during the war rescuing over 900,000 patients.

By October of 1971, Chrin had flown more than 120 Combat Medevac Missions.

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On Oct. 13, 1971, Chrin and his crew were killed during a rescue mission when their helicopter crashed into the 2,330-foot mountain peak, Dop Chompa.

Bill Sypher of Friends of Vietnam DUSTOFF, who presented the plaque dedication, said the crew had decided to go on the mission despite inclement weather conditions because the casualty had been in the field too long.

While attempting visual contact with troops on the ground, the aircraft struck the peak of the mountain.

"What makes this event even more tragic," Sypher said, "was the fact that the patient had died long before before DUSTOFF 71 had took off."

In 2015, Oct. 13 was proclaimed John Stephen Chrin Day throughout Lebanon by Mayor Sherry Capello.

Chrin was awarded the Purple Heart, six Air Medals, National Defense Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and Army Aviator Wings for his Service as well as the Vietnam Campaign Medal from the Republic of Vietnam.

Al Goss and Christopher Siedor, who both knew served with Chrin, spoke of him during the ceremony. They painted the picture of an intelligent, funny and personal man, who had plans of marrying the woman he was in love with when he returned home.

"John was one of those guys that was so smart that everything came to him so naturally," said Goss, who went through basic training and flight school with Chrin." I wasn't one of those guys. I had to work for everything, but John took me under his wing. I was 19 at that time, a year out of high school. John helped me get through some tough times."

Chrin's plaque, along with a plaque honoring the work of CW5 John M. Travers, another DUSTOFF pilot, will be displayed at the Eastern Army Aviation Site at Fort Indiantown Gap.

"That story you heard about John, that patient died three hours before they launched," said Siedor, who served in the same detachment as Chrin. "But they still launched because they didn't know that."

"Because you see if we could get to a wounded soldier who was seriously wounded, called urgent, within 60 minutes, the golden hour in the medical field, they had a 90% chance of living because they were young and strong, so long as it wasn't a head shot. At two hours that survivability went to 40%, actually less than 40%. At three hours they were dead in a body bag."

"So we didn't wait for the weather to clear of nighttime to end, that's what we did. The astronomical figure that I'm going to share just one more time, 900,000 plus patients, 496,569 patients, 8,000 hoist missions where you parked an unarmed helicopter for 20-30 minutes waiting for that patient to come up. That's what John did. Everybody that flew a medical evacuation in Vietnam, those 3,400 guys, they were all volunteers."

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on Twitter @djlarlham

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Lebanon Vietnam Hero honored during Vietnam Veterans Day Ceremony