18 May 2004 Ed Hincewicz was a career Air Force man. He joined almost as soon as he finished High School in Scranton, Pa. He put off joining by a few weeks to wait for me to be born so he could go down to Ft. Worth, Texas and have a look at me. I was his first nephew and he always made me feel special. He visited as often as he could when on leave, and I always looked forward to hearing about the far-off places he'd been: Norway, Formosa, Japan, France, .... In fact, it was largely his influence that made me embark on my own overseas career. Uncle Eddie spent a little over a year in Vietnam. He was stationed at Nha Trang with the 310th ACS where he was a crew member on a C-123B flareship. A few months before he was killed, he injured his hand with one of the flares when the mechanism jammed. He died on 13 January 1966 while flying a flare drop mission. Sgt. Clifford Parker, one of Ed's buddies, has written me with a few details about that mission. It seems that one of the A-1E bombers had a bomb that failed to release. The pilot, Capt. Robert Middlebrooks, began to climb and at the same time was trying to shake the bomb free. During this maneuver, he collided with Ed's C-123B, exploding on impact. There were no survivors. Capt. Herman Ritchie, Capt. Warren Anderson, SSgt. Byron Crotwell, TSgt. Thomas Fodaro, and TSgt. Irwin Hoffman were the other crew members who were on the plane with Eddie that night. Uncle Eddie was everybody's favorite. He had a very easy-going personality and never seemed to think unkindly of anybody. I have always been very proud of him and I'm glad he was an influence on my life. From a nephew, Lee W. Meister, Jr. lmeister@geotrace.com

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall On the night of 13 Jan 1966 a C-123B transport (tail number 55-4519) of the 310th Air Commando Squadron was providing flareship support for a flight of A-1E Skyraiders from the 1st ACS. The Skyraiders in turn were attacking VC positions near An Khe. As one of the Skyraiders pulled off target after delivering ordnance it collided with the circling flareship. Both aircraft crashed; there were no survivors. The dead were Aboard C-123B 55-4519 Capt Herman H. Ritchie, Okmulgee, OK, 310th ACS, pilot Capt Warren L. Anderson, San Jose, CA, 310th ACS, copilot SSgt Byron H. Crotwell, Jackson, MS, 310th ACS TSgt Thomas A. Fodaro, Syracuse, NY, 6253rd Cbt Spt Grp SSgt Edward J. Hincewicz, Scranton, PA, 310th ACS TSgt Irwin L. Hoffman, Elmhurst, NY, 310th ACS Aboard A-1E 52-133989 Capt Robert N. Middlebrooks, Ariton, AL, 1st ACS The 310th served in Vietnam for 6 years, undergoing several name changes. Activated as the 310th Troop Carrier Squadron, Assault, on 24 May 1963, it became the 310th Air Commando Squadron, Troop Carrier, on 8 Mar 1965; the 310th Air Commando Squadron, Tactical Airlift, on 1 Aug 1967; the 310th Special Operations Squadron on 1 Aug 1968; and the 310th Tactical Airlift Squadron on 1 Jan 1970. The squadron was inactivated on 15 Nov 1972.

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