In the near future I will be introducing legislation to designate a bridge carrying State Route 934 over Swatara Creek in East Hanover Township, Lebanon County as the WO1 John Stephen Chrin Memorial Bridge.

John Chrin was born on June 24, 1949 in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, later attending Lebanon Catholic High School. After graduating high school John attended Mansfield State College until his junior year when he enlisted in the United States Army. In the Army, John became a Warrant Officer 1 and a combat medical evacuation (DUSTOFF) pilot, assigned to the 57 Medical Detachment, 68 Medical Group at Bing Thuy in the Mekong Delta.

During his service John flew more than 125 combat medevac missions through the Delta area of Vietnam. On October 13, 1971 John was killed in action when his DUSTOFF71 was on a mission and crashed during the night in monsoon rains in the Seven Sisters Mountain on the Cambodian border.

John’s name is forever memorialized on panel 2W line 38 of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.

Please join me in honoring this brave Pennsylvanian who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country and fellow servicemen.