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To know <em>Michael ‘Mike’ Momcilovich Jr</em>. was to know the world, for Mike loved life and shared life’s goodness with all who knew him, whether passing by strangers or spending hours with lifelong friends. He was a quiet man, an unassuming Soldier who performed his duty as God and man taught him. Mike was comfortable in the most challenging situations, from daily academic recitations to the most competitive of physical endeavors. Having a broad understanding of the political military issues of the day no doubt influenced his relaxed manner. His father’s active duty Army assignments in Guadalcanal and New Caledonia during WWII and in occupied Japan during the Korean conflict formed a base upon which Michael’s perspectives, enjoyments and understanding were created.</p>
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Classmate John Alger recalled vividly a visit Mike made to his home to celebrate Thanksgiving 1964 with John’s family and grandmother. It was as traditional a Thanksgiving as one might hope for. Around the table, each spoke humbly about the challenges each faced. There was no talk about Vietnam or even exciting thoughts of assignments in Germany and other bastions of global power.</p>
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Shortly after graduation, Mike married the former Lynne Lawrence of Nashville, TN at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Wilmington, DE. Enthusiastically, Mike then headed for the rigors of Ranger School and Armor training.</p>
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Mike’s first assignment in the Regular Army took him to Germany, where he reveled in the day-to-day missions of the Armored Cavalry, assigned to deter communist operations along the inner German border. However, Mike’s border patrol routine was dramatically curtailed as the United States began to shift its global forces from the NATO front in Europe to the threats of communist forces in Vietnam.</p>
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Having been exposed to air cavalry operations while in Germany, Mike continued his newly discovered love of flying and entered basic helicopter training at Fort Rucker, AL. After earning his silver aviator wings, Mike was assigned to a helicopter unit in South Vietnam. He loved the responsibility that came with command, just as he loved the heat and exhaust from helicopters returning from yet another mission. Mike’s initiation into the realities of helicopter operations in a hostile environment began shortly after his arrival in September 1967, when he began flying medevac missions in the UH-1 Iroquois (Huey), little knowing that the next six months would see a dramatic increase in the combat resources deployed by both sides of the conflict. Calm and cautious, Mike continued to fight the war along the South China Sea. In the spring of 1968, Mike was selected to participate in transition training to the highly upgraded combat fighter helicopter designated the AH-1G Cobra. In a chance encounter on the tarmac at Tan Son Nhut Airport, Saigon, Mike extolled the virtues of the Cobra helicopter to his former roommate, John Alger. They then spoke as proud fathers—John’s daughter born but not yet seen, and Mike’s daughter Kristin born in February 1967 and never again to be privy to the awe of a loving father.</p>
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Michael was eager to return to his unit to further test the improved capabilities of what was then the best helicopter in the world. Following his second Cobra combat sortie with the 1st Air Cavalry Division on May 5, 1968, Mike headed his helicopter to LZ Sharon, where he would be secure for the night. His descent, however, was interrupted by hostile fire. Although Mike landed his Cobra successfully in friendly territory, the ensuing fire quickly consumed his aircraft. The exploding ammunition on the helicopter turned away the rescuers trying to reach Mike and his co-pilot, John Rees. The crash site was near the DMZ in Quang Tri Province, a few miles inland from the coast of I Corps, the northernmost tactical zone of the Vietnamese Army.</p>
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Interestingly, in 2013 Nancy Lynch, author of the book <em>Vietnam Mailbag: Voices from the War</em>, received an email from Vietnam vet Bill Melfi, who in 1990 sponsored U.S. citizenship for former Army of Vietnam (ARVN) soldier Ngoc Vo, whom Bill had befriended back in 1972. Vo’s son was working for a metal recycling program in Vietnam in 1978 when his group located Mike’s AH-1G wreckage. In the wreckage he found Mike’s military driver’s license, which Ngoc Vo gave to Melfi. Melfi searched through several U.S. agencies back then to find any next of kin but was told there weren’t any. Then, in early 2013, Melfi stumbled across the plastic bag where he had put the old driver’s license and decided to restart his search via the Internet. Shortly thereafter, he came across Nancy’s book and contacted her. She subsequently visited both the Melfi and Vo families in Florida, and on Memorial Day 2013 the two families presented the driver’s license to Mike’s daughter, Kristin James, and his surviving brother, Mark Momcilovich, at a ceremony at the Vietnam War Memorial in Wilmington, DE, with U.S. Senator Tom Carper and numerous other veterans in attendance. The full story of the license discovery, its journey back to the U.S. and its presentation to Kristin is detailed in the February 2015 edition of <em>Vietnam</em> magazine by Weider Publications.</p>
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On many memorials seen across this vast land, one can see the saying, “All gave some, some gave all.” Mike, unfortunately, gave all. Mike is interred in the West Point Cemetery.</p>
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<em>— Brother and classmates</em></p>