Coast Guard MIA laid to rest at Arlington

ARLINGTON, Va. — The only Coast Guardsman who was declared missing in the Vietnam War was remembered Monday as a hero, some 35 years after he and three others were killed while trying to rescue another serviceman.
That was the last of many rescue attempts made by Lt. Jack C. Rittichier of Barberton, Ohio, who was known to his friends and family as a man who could do everything.

“I know just what he would have said if he were here today: ‘I’m no hero. It’s my job,”’ said younger brother David Rittichier, 69, of Erwin, Tenn.

Rittichier, who was 34 at the time, was the pilot of an HH-3E helicopter that had left Da Nang Air Base in South Vietnam on June 9, 1968, on a rescue mission for a downed U.S. pilot. His helicopter was struck by enemy fire and exploded in a fireball.

The pilot Rittichier was trying to rescue, Marine 1st Lt. Walter R. Schmidt, of Nassau, N.Y., had been shot down and was stranded in enemy territory with a broken leg. Schmidt didn’t survive and was listed as MIA.

Before Vietnam, Rittichier won honors for rescue work during Hurricane Betsy in 1965. He also earned an Air Medal in 1967 for copiloting a helicopter that rescued eight seamen from a West German vessel in Lake Huron.

Rittichier was discharged from the Air Force as a captain in 1963. He then joined the Coast Guard and volunteered for a pilot exchange program in Vietnam.

Two weeks after being deployed, he earned his first Distinguished Flying Cross for flying through enemy fire to save four Army soldiers. He would earn two additional Flying Crosses and three more Air Medals before his last flight.

“If we define the character of a man by his actions, Lieutenant Jack C. Rittichier is the embodiment of courage,” said Adm. Thomas Collins, the Coast Guard commandant.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge also attended the funeral, which was followed by a half-mile procession behind Rittichier’s flag-covered casket. It was pulled by six white horses on a black caisson to his grave site at Arlington National Cemetery’s Coast Guard Hill overlooking the Pentagon, a part of the cemetery usually reserved for senior officers.

Mourners recited The Lord’s Prayer, then a seven-member rifle party fired three volleys. As a lone bugler played taps, four red and white helicopters circled the hill, representing every type of chopper in the Coast Guard inventory.

“When those guns went off and those helicopters went over ... I was flooded with a lot of the old feelings,” David Rittichier said of his older brother, who played football in high school and was captain of the 1955 Kent State University Golden Flashes. “We’ve missed him terribly.”

A Coast Guard bagpipe band played “Amazing Grace” as Collins presented a flag to David Rittichier. Brother Henry Rittichier, 60, of Houston, and Rittichier’s widow, Carol Wypick of Fountain Valley, Calif., said they had waited a long time.

“I never thought this day would come,” said Wypick, who later married another Coast Guard search and rescue pilot. “You have no idea, in my heart, how wonderful this is.”

Joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams searched for the crash site in Vietnam, but came up empty each time. In May 2002, officials received information about a crash near Ban Kaboui, Laos, about nine miles from the reported loss location. The U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii identified the remains recovered at the wreckage as those of the pilots and crew.

Also killed in the Vietnam mission were: Rittichier’s co-pilot, Air Force Capt. Richard C. Yeend Jr. of Mobile, Ala.; and two crew members, Air Force Sgt. James D. Locker of Sidney, Ohio, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Elmer L. Holden of Oklahoma City.

At a reception following the funeral, three people who wore MIA bracelets engraved with Rittichier’s name gave their bracelets to the family.

“I’ve worn this bracelet with pride and hope,” said Deborah Eggleston of Newcomerstown, Ohio. “This man fought for my freedom. He was already a hero in my eyes.”

By Malia Rulon
Associated Press
October 07, 2003