 |
AW2 Reginald "Reggie" Lee Walker
VP-10 P-3B
BUNO: 152749
9/14/48-03/15/73
Hometown: Bristol, Indiana |
Shipmates Comments:
Bruce Barney:
I went to AW A school in Sep 1969. AW2 Reggie Walker and I were both in the same AW A school class. He died in VP-10's crash off the coast of Brunswick, ME on March 15, 1973. They were practicing ditching and stalled the aircraft.
Media Articles:
Five feared dead in ocean crash of patrol plane out of Brunswick
Brunswick Times Record, March 16, 1973
By Bob Chaffee
BRUNSWICK--Search efforts continued this morning for five missing Navy crewmen whose P-3B Orion crashed into the icy Atlantic Thursday afternoon but officials held little hope of finding any survivors.
The plane, out of Patrol Squadron 10, was on a routine training mission when it crashed about 2 p.m. some 40 miles south of Brunswick Naval Air Station according to Ens. Richard Meade, BNAS public information officer.
By mid-morning, searchers had recovered only floatable items, Meade said, and the bulk of the aircraft with the men apparently aboard had submerged into the 300 to 600 feet of water below. Water temperature is 38 degrees which Meade said "pretty much precludes survival for any length of time in the water."
Among the materials recovered so far are piences believed to have been part of the wing, one orange life raft still in its case, some floorboards, pieces of insulation, and a cover of one of the electronic devices on the plane. The life raft was one of three normally carried on the Orion.
Search efforts began shortly after a second Orion spotted an oil slick and floating debris in the area yesterday afternoon. Four Coast Guard cutters, two Coast Guard helicopters, and an Orion were involved in search efforts yesterday afternoon and last night. Heavy fog hampered efforts last night and the aircraft had to be recalled until this morning when they returned to the scene.
Although the weather hampered search efforts, Meade said "it was pretty good at the estimated time of the crash" and does not appear to have been a factor although no evidence of the cause of the crash has yet been found.
One Maine man was listed among the missing men, Machinist 1C Wayne C. Clendenning of Vanceboro. Others aboard the aircraft were Lt. Cmdr. John E. Boyer of Lewiston, Pa.; Lt. Grover R. Caloway of McGeehee, Ark.; Aviation Machinist Chief Jeremiah K. Sullivan Jr. of York, Pa.; and AW2 Reginald Lee Walker of Bristol, Ind.
Special memorial services have been scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. at the BNAS Chapel. If the bodies of the five men are still not been recovered, flags will be presented to the next-of-kin at the memorial service by Cmdr. Robert Sheets of VP-10.
Because of the death of the ocean at the crash site, "salvage efforts would be extremely difficult if attempted at all" according to Meade.
Participating in the search effort are the Coast Guard cutters, Yankton out of Portland, Cape George and Vigilant out of New Bedford, Mass., and the Active from Newcastle. Two helicopters from Cape Cod were also assigned to the search effort.
The five men on board were half the usual number when the Orions are on operational anti-submarine missions and crews number from nine to twelve persons.
Yesterday's crash was the first fatal accident in many years for any of the BNAS squadrons operating out of Brunswick. Several fatal crashes have occurred while squadrons were on deployment or operating out of other bases, the most recent being a VP-44 crew lost on a mountain in Morocco last year.
The Orion P-3B is a military version of the Electra manufactured by Lockheed. It is designed for anti-submarine patrols, capable of long non-stop flights at the relatively slow speeds needed for patrol work.
The planes are loaded with sophisticated electronic equipment for submarine detection.
Services are held for crash victims
Brunswick Times Record, March 19, 1973
BRUNSWICK--Search efforts have been called off and memorial services were held Sunday for the five Navy crewmen whose P-3B Orion plunged into the ocean some 40 miles south of here Thursday.
Search and rescue efforts begun Thursday afternoon, were officially called of Saturday at dusk, according to Ens. Richard Meade, BNAS public information officer.
Sunday's memorial services were attended by more than 1,000 persons. Flags were presented to next-of-kin and taps were played during the service.
The five crewmen, presumed to have perished with the plane, were Lt. Cmdr. John E. Boyer, 36, of Brunswick and Lewiston, Pa.; Lt. Grover R. Caloway, 27, of McGeehee, Ark.; Aviation Machinist Mate Chief Jeremiah K. Sullivan Jr., 32 of Brunswick and York, Pa.; AW2 Reginald Lee Walker, 25, of Bath and Bristol, Ind.; and Machinist 1C Wayne C. Clendenning, 34, of Topsham and Vanceboro.
Boyer, a squadron training officer with 14 years of Naval service, was married to the former Judith Ayer of Bath.
The P-3B was on a routine training mission when it crashed into the ocean Thursday afternoon. The crash was first reported by a second P-3B in the area which spotted an oil slick and floating debris.
No explanation of the cause of the crash has yet been found. Rescue efforts by four Coast Guard cutters and two helicopters as well as BNAS planes recoverd only floating fragments of the plane. The bulk of the plane with its five-member crew are presumed to have sunk over 300 feet to the ocean floor below.
Meade said this morning no determination has yet been made on whether or not to attempt salvage operations. "The depth in that area would make salvage very difficult," he said.
Navy Times, April 4, 1973:
Plane Crash Kills Five
BRUNSWICK, Maine--Five Navy men died March 15 when their P-3 Orion plane crashed into the ocean 40 miles south of here.
The Navy identified the dead as Lt. Cmdr. John E. Boyer, Lt. Grover R. Caloway, Chief Aviation Machinist's Mate Jeremiah K. Sullivan, Aviation Machinist's Mate First Wayne Clendenning and Aviation ASW Operator Second Reginald L. Walker of Patrol Squadron 10.