Hi. My name is Larry Spazafumo Jr. (AKA Michael Spazafumo) and I wanted to let HMM-161 know that my father Larry Spazafumo Sr. passed away November 2008.
He was a Marine until the end and we buried him in Jacksonville, NC where he stayed after being medically discharged from the Marine Corp due to a back injury sustained in Vietnam. He said there are two engines on the helicopter and a newbie pilot was flying and one of the engines when out and he accidently turned off the good engine so they went into a hillside and everyone walked away; however, after returning to Jacksonville and not working out as much as he had to in Vietnam the back injury showed up (compressed and slipped disk) forced him out. I know this really sucked for him as he wanted to be a Marine forever and essentially was for the rest of his life.
I am wondering if anyone has pictures of my dad from Vietnam. He served from 1969 to 1970 in HMM161. I also have pictures I can send you; however, I have no idea which photos are from HMM161 so I will have to send them all.
You can reach me via e-mail at mikespaz@att.net as I will not be using popasmoke.com for communications.
Thanks,
Michael Spazafumo