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Mike Hanratty: a Beulah Boy's ultimiate sacrifice
Excerpt from "The Ultimate Sacrifice: Two Beulah SOLDIERS, The Beulah Newspaper May 2020
by Greta Hanson Maurer
Vietnam - Thomas Michael 'Mike' Hanratty
One look at the military portrait of US Marine Pfc. Thomas Michael ‘Mike’ Hanratty (crew chief), and you will feel his determination, despite his youthful features. Mike was born on June 19, 1946, growing up outside of the Beulah Valley near the limestone quarry off of Siloam Road. The Hanratty family—parents Patrick Sr. and Leta May (Koger); older siblings Patsy and Patrick, Jr; Mike. and younger siblings, Bessie and Bernie, twins—lived simply, and enjoyed rural life.
Beulah resident Corky Outhier was one of Mike’s good friends, and spent quite a bit of time at the Hanratty place. “He was a good basketball player, we learned how to shoot with a flat basketball and a bucket nailed to the side of the barn!” The boys were one of three kids in the 1st grade, they were in the same 4-H club, and spent considerable time exploring nearby Buzzard Canyon. “Mike was 100% Irish. He didn’t start a fight, but he wasn’t afraid to finish it, either.”
Athletically gifted in every sport, Mike was also a budding artist, after graduating from Pueblo County High School in 1964, pursuing Architecture for two years at Southern Colorado State College (CSU-Pueblo) prior to his enlistment into the Marines.
His sister, Bess explains that despite his parents strong desire that he stay in school, Mike felt his draft number would be low, and if he was going to serve, he would serve on his terms. Mike and his good friend Edward ‘Eddie’ Janezich entered the Marines together through the Buddy System, allowing them to enlist and train together.
When he arrived in Vietnam he started as a mechanic, but ‘volunteered for everything’ to play a greater role in a war that was already 10 years in the making (the endless war would not conclude until 1975). Mike found himself a gunner in the belly of a helicopter, a provisional Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol unit vital for gaining intel on the enemy.
Mike’s helicopter went down on June 11, 1967 in the Quang Tri province; the full crash report is available online, an excerpt reads....
“At an estimated altitude of 400-600 feet, the helicopter was observed to climb erratically, similar to an aircraft commencing a loop. [Enemy] Machinegun men had been waiting for the opportune time to fire on the aircraft. Portions of the rear blades were seen to separate from the aircraft and a radio transmission was received from the aircraft indicating that it had been hit. The helicopter became inverted and continued out of control until it was seen to crash by a stream in a steep ravine. Subsequent efforts by ground units to reach the crash area failed due to a heavy bunker complex surrounding the site. The ground units inspected the site from within 500 meters through binoculars and observed no survivors. All eleven personnel aboard the helicopter were therefore classified Killed In Action, Body Not Recovered.”
At that time, the Hanrattys had no phone, so news of the crash was given to neighbors Ray and Yvonne Youngren to deliver. For months rumors swirled around his death, but the family had no confirmation, and could say nothing.
In August the official and final notice of ‘little chance of recovery’ was fatefully delivered to the family when his mother Leta was alone—unimaginably just two hours before brother Pat Jr. would arrive home for leave from the Army—stretching the limits of a mother’s heart.
Years later, it would be a Pueblo South High graduate by the name of Ray Sullivan who would connect with the family and they would learn that he was on the mission to recover the downed helicopter, providing much needed details, and friendship in the years since the fateful crash.
Just four years ago, Bess was asked for a DNA sample, eventually learning from Sullivan, that the remains of two bodies were identified as members from the crew, but not of her brother.
‘The Fighting Spirit’ award, endowed by his father Pat, is still given out every year to the Pueblo County High School athlete who best exemplifies Mike’s bravery. Bess and her daughter Leta continue to search for any pictures, stories, letters, about Mike; and spread awareness that there are still those that have not returned home.
by Greta Hanson Maurer, originally printed in The Beulah Newspaper May 2020.