01 Fbe 2004 Matthew Perry Amaral III was born November 29, 1946 in Beverly, Massachusetts. His parents were Matthew and Janet (Perry) Amaral II. He had a brother Steve, but I do not know if there were other brothers and sisters. Matthew graduated from Gloucester High School in 1965. He enjoyed playing baseball (shortstop) and was a drummer in a band "Bob and The Terriers." He entered the Army December 6, 1965 and served with the 240th Assault Helicopter Company in Vietnam. He was part of a Task Force that served the 3-506th Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division. On December 14, 1967, his helicopter crashed and all crew members died: 1st Lt. Harold Brown, WO1 William Clawson, Spec 4 Ronny Kindred and Matthew. Matthew is buried in Wesleyan Cemetery in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Godspeed, Matthew! Placed by a Currahee researcher. E-mail address is not available.

 

02 Mar 2007 Matt had a great smile and a easy way about him. I enjoyed sitting in front of the tents at night after a day of flying and talking of home and football. I came from Malden and we played Gloucester. Matt is in my thoughts and prayers. A friend from the 240th, Peter Gailis clamshel9@aol.com

 

09 Sep 2007 Mathew Amaral was the best friend that I have ever had and I was honored to serve with him and be his friend. I was also a Crewchief with the 240th Assault Helicopter Company. Every time my helicopter went to maintance for repairs, I would fly with "Amaral" as his door gunner, and he would do the same for me. Amaral had been on a non-flying status for a few days, as his helicopter had been involved in a hard landing that hurt his back. My helicopter was in maintance for a 300 hour inspection, so we spent a couple of days working around our base camp and helping other crewchiefs. The evening of December 13, 1967 they placed Amaral back on active flight status. That evening we ate dinner at the mess hall and Amaral asked if I was going to fly with him the next day. He had never asked as this was something that we just did. Since I only had 19 days left in country and since my Dad had written me a letter asking that I not volunteer for any more assigments, I said "no". After dinner we stopped and got us a couple of beers, as we were having a movie that night, which happened approximately once a month. Again Amaral asked me to fly with him, but again I said no. That night our Sergeant asked me to fly with Amaral, but I told him that my heicopter was in maintance and that I only had a few days left in country and that I was hanging up my flying boots. Our Sergeant then turned to "Kindred" and asked him to fly. Kindred told the Sergeant that he had been flying for 23 stright days without a day off and he wanted to go to the PX to pick up a few things. The Sergeant then told Kindred that he had told him to fly and that he was going to fly. While the movie was playing Amaral again asked me to fly with him, but again I said "no". A little later the helicpoters started returning from that day's missions. Later Amaral and I went to the flight line to pull the daily maintance on his helicopter. It was during the dry season, and the Input-Output Quill was leaking. This is like a drive shaft between the engine and transmission. Sand had gotten behind the rubber seals, causing the oil in the In-Put out-put oil resovoir to leak. The leakage was enough to Red X the helicopter and place it on a non flyable status. Amaral and I turned the paper work into the flight tower. Sometime during the night the flight line Sergeant took this helicopter off our Red-X status and placed it back into service as a flyable helicopter. The next day around mid-day we got word back at base camp that we had lost a helicopter, and I knew it was Amaral's helicopter. Amaral is without a doubt the best FRIEND that I have ever had, and I think about him every day. Best Regards to his family and friends and especially the young lady that he was going to marry just as soon as he got home. Spec. 5th Class Roger Dale McLean US53423622 Helicopter # 206 Crewchief 654 Stewart Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27107 rmclean001@triad.rr.com

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall As noted above, four men of the 240th AHC died when their UH-1H (tail number 66-16211) had a transmission failure while supporting operation Claymoth Falls: 1LT Haron L. Brown, Huntington, WV, pilot WO William K. Clawson, Linden, IN, copilot SP5 Matthew P. Amaral, Gloucester, MA, crew chief SP4 Ronny K. Kindred, Checotah, OK, gunner The aircraft reportedly crashed and burned in Bao Loc Pass.

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