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Daniel Edward Jurecko was born at 2:25 p.m. on
August 19, 1948 in Corpus Christi, Texas to proud parents,
Edward and Betty Jurecko.
When Danny was 9 years old he was visiting with his grandmother
and wrote a letter home to our mother and father that expressed
his love of airplanes.
July 3, 1957:
“Dear Mother and
Father - I have three airplanes and next time we go to town
Grandmother is going to buy me a B29 Bomber or a big Martin B-26
Marauder Bomber.
Daddy, how many airplanes do I have now?”
Danny also loved to take things apart and see what made them
work. When he was 16
years of age - he took the engine out of his first car, and
dissembled it part by part and then put it back together.
In growing up, he had many remote controlled model
airplanes that he built and would spend hours flying them,
overwhelmed with what made them fly.
As a hobby, he raised pigeons and built a home for them
in our backyard, big enough for him and I to get inside with
them. We would sit
there for hours, as he explained to me everything about them.
Our father would drive us miles from home and Danny would
release several of his prize, racing Pigeons.
We would return home and wait in anticipation for their
return, and one by one here they would come.
Danny had a newspaper route and he would convince his best
friend, Ray to help him, because the earlier Danny was done the
more time they had to explore the world.
They had BB gun battles in our back yard with protective
bunkers they had made by stacking up bricks. Many days,
they would make trips to an old land fill area behind some
riding stables that always had water in it. Using it as
their own personal lake they had appropriated a galvanized horse
water trough as a boat. It leaked like crazy, and they
would patch it with mud, then take it back into the lake so it
could sink with them, again.
Danny enjoyed fishing, especially when cold fronts came through (when no one
else with any sense would be out there).
One day he rented a boat to try out his outboard motor
that he had found in a junkyard and thought he had restored.
It was midnight when the motor stalled, the choke fell
out of it, and he thought for sure he would be run over by a
tugboat pushing barges.
He also enjoyed fishing off the breakwaters next to the
T-Heads in Corpus Christi.
One day he realized he didn’t have a dime (yes, it was
just a dime back then) to call for a ride back home so he tried
to file a penny on the concrete sidewalk to use in the pay
phone.
Danny taught Ray how to wrap fishing rods, putting on grips
and eyes on rod blanks.
They upgraded fishing to Tarpon and other big fish.
They never caught one, but had fun anyway.
When the surfing craze hit, Danny tried it. He
would rent a surfboard, and back then they were enormous and
heavy, but he would manage to hang ten as he walked off the end
of the board.
He loved the outdoors and was very adventurous.
Danny’s enthusiasm for joining the military was motivated to
some extent by his desire to emulate our father, a veteran of
World War II, parachuted into France the night before D-Day.
Danny didn’t have to go to Vietnam, because as the only
son he was exempt.
January 4, 1967, Danny enlisted in the Army and studied Aircraft
Maintenance at Ft. Polk, LA and before leaving for Vietnam he
was assigned to Fort Bragg, NC 3rd Special Forces.
March 13, 1968, Danny was assigned to the 281st Assault
Helicopter Company where his first assignment was as a
helicopter mechanic.
Shortly after, he volunteered to be a Crew Chief and was
assigned to missions supporting the recovery of Special Forces
Long Range Reconnaissance Teams (LRRP).
In Danny’s last letter home he tried to explain to our mother,
who had urged him to keep his job as a mechanic and stay on the
ground, why he wanted to fly.
April 27, 1968, he
wrote - “The truth is I wanted to get out and fight for my
country and be able to tell myself that I did something for the
cause of this war.”
“Right now, I’m in the field and will be here for thirty to
sixty days.” “I’m
sure that you have heard of the place I’m at on the news and in
the paper.” I’m in
the A Shau Valley and the war is different then that at Nha
Trang.” “I told you
that I wanted to crew in the gun platoon and that is what I got
in.” “The third
flight which is better known as Wolf Pack - Death on Call, and
from what I have been doing so far that name is right.”
On May 8, 1968, less than two weeks after writing that letter,
Danny was flying a combat aviation mission in support of Project
Delta. Danny was
Crew Chief on a 281st AHC gun ship when the UH-1C was shot down.
At 9:00 p.m. the same night the doorbell rang at our
home, to give us this news.
It was Mother’s Day.
Lost with Danny were WO George Condrey III, Pilot, WO
James Dayton, Aircraft Commander and Robert Jenne, Door Gunner.
They were assigned the mission of supporting the recovery
of a Special Forces Long Range Reconnaissance Team (LRRP) that
was engaged in a fire fight with a large hostile force and as
such were in danger of being captured.
When they arrived on the scene their gunship immediately
came under intense fire.
As the pickup helicopter approached the landing zone the
crew flew close fire support placing suppressive fire on the
hostile forces and at the same time by placing themselves
between the lightly armed pickup helicopter and the hostile
force they were able to draw the ground fire away from the
pickup helicopter.
Although drawing heavy fire from the hostile forces on the
ground the crew continued to provide cover to the pickup
helicopters until their own helicopter gun ship was hit by a
barrage of enemy fire that caused it to explode in midair and
crash on the bank of the Vuong River.
The violent midair explosion of the aircraft indicated
that it had been hit by a rocket type explosive projectile.
Shortly after the incident, recovery personnel landed
near the crash, but were unable to find any signs of life.
On May 12, 1968, a ground patrol located the remains of 4
individuals near the crash site.
However, due to heavy enemy activity the remains could
not be recovered.
During the period of April 10, 1968 to April 30, 1968 while in
Vietnam, Danny actively participated in more than twenty-five
aerial missions over hostile territory in support of
counterinsurgency operations.
During all of these flights, he displayed the highest
order of air discipline and acted according to the best
traditions of the service.
By his determination to accomplish his mission, in spite
of the hazards inherent in repeated aerial flights over hostile
territory, and by his outstanding degree of professionalism and
devotion to duty, he brought credit upon himself, his
organization, and the Untied States Army and was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously) for heroism, the Air
Medal (Posthumously) and the Purple Heart (Posthumously)
evidenced by actions above and beyond the call of duty.
Even though our parents were laid to rest at Arlington National
Cemetery in 2008, Danny will always live on in the hearts and
memories of his family and friends.
He will never be forgotten and my undying hope is even
stronger today, than yesterday that one day his remains will be
found and brought home.
I’m blessed to have had a brother who faced danger of
conflict with courage in-order to preserve the right of people
to remain free. I
will always be indebted to his bravery and selfless devotion.
I love and miss you,
Your sister, Debbie
(If anyone has any memories or photographs of Danny when he was
in the service please contact me at
dtornillo@msn.com)
From Ronny Awtry...
Danny was my mom's
cousin,
He passed 55 days before I was born. Were it not for his passing
and the freshness of the pain of loss, I would have carried his
name. A crew chief on a UH-1C gun ship, he always dreamed of
flying.
Growing up he tied towels around his neck and in superman
fashion jumped off the roof believing he could fly!! My aunt as
a small girl landed flat on her back and lost her wind, never
forgetting she couldn't fly. I believe my uncle broke his first
bone on one of these excursions.
As a young teen, Danny would go to downtown Corpus Christi late
at night and collect roosting pigeons. He had a coop in his back
yard with what seemed hundreds in it. He marveled that if set
free they came back. A troubled teen, he joined the Army at his
Father's insistence**. The family guilt exists to this day.
As the crew chief on the UH-1, one of Danny's last letters home
said, " In these helicopters I have finally found myself, I am
flying!!" Though later lost he was found on the most deeper
sense at the end. This story mirrors many of us.
I told this story through the eyes and ears of my Mother, Father
and Aunts and Uncles. I grew up as a cousin, because his memory
filled a place in our families lives and stories. Danny was not
forgotten, His memorial patch was the first patch on my vest, I
tell his story often by mention of the patch.
It is through this website( Members Groups and Message Boards)
that I found Danny's Unit and talked to his commanding officer.
It is through this organization that I honor his memory as a
Patriot Guard Rider today. We would have ridden missions
together if he were with us today. Matter of fact, he does ride
missions with us, because for me and my family, he is not
forgotten.
This letter is written all my love,
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