PAVE LOW Pilot #39
Mike Skeen
Michael Walter Skeen, Capt
Mike Skeen (1950 – 1984) served as a PAVE LOW pilot (Pilot #39) and was lost in the line of duty on 17 October 1984.
- Rank
- Capt
- Position
- Pilot #39
- Born
- September 5th, 1950
- Died
- October 17th, 1984
- Age
- 34
- Lost in the line of duty
- 17 October 1984HH-53H73-1647
Capt Michael Walter Skeen, 34, was killed in a helicopter crash while deployed with the 20th SOS to the Republic of the Philippines for Exercise “COPE THUNDER 85-1”. The deployment ended tragically during the exercise when the HH-53H PAVE LOW, serial number 73-1647, impacted a ridge-line in Crow Valley, near Clark AB, Philippines, during a night TF mission in a heavy rain squall, crashed and was destroyed killing its crew.
Capt. Skeen was a Marine pilot for nine years before joining the Air Force. He had been an Air Force pilot for three years. In 1982 the Air Force awarded him the Air Medal for Meritorious Achievement. Born in Japan, he grew up in Marinwood. He graduated from Terra Linda High School and attended San Francisco State University and was on the football team at both schools.
Survivors include his wife, the former Barbara Weber, of Pensacola; a daughter Kristy, 11, of Pensacola; two sisters — Katherine Boyle and Mary Skeen, of Novato, and two brothers — Thomas Skeen of Novato and Daniel Skeen of Lakewood, Colo. His father, Frederick T. Skeen, was a U.S. Army veteran of two wars, WWII and the Korean War, and his mother Lena Katherine Skeen, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Mike is buried at Barrancas National Cemetery, NAS Pensacola, FL, plot 35A, 0, 342.
Died in the crash were:
Major James S. Prowell
Captain Michael W. Skeen
Technical Sergeant Thomas M. Ortiz, Jr
Technical Sergeant Wayne A. Johnson
Staff Sergeant Robert G. Barker
Sergeant Max B. “Paco”Lincks, Jr.
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