SPC Marvin Simpson was a US Army 11B infantry M-60 machine-gunner with the 193rd Infantry Brigade in Panama. He was on temporary duty attached as a helicopter M60D doorgunner with 1st Platoon, Company B, 4th Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, at Soto Cano Airbase in Honduras in 1990. His platoon was on rotation and forward deployed in El Salvador in support of the US Military Advisory Group.

On Feb. 25, 1991, SPC Simpson was manning his weapon system on the trailing helicopter in a flight of 2 aircraft from San Salvador on a routine support mission to visit military advisors in the eastern part of the country. Shortly after departing from Ilopango Airbase, his helicopter experienced a tail rotor driveshaft malfunction, resulting in the loss of aircraft control and crashing into Lake Ilopango, a deep volcanic lake to the southeast of the airbase. All five Soldiers onboard died in the impact.

Killed with SPC Simpson was pilot in command Chief Warrant Officer 2 Paul Timmer, copilot Warrant Officer Eric Funderburg and crew chief Sergeant David Coleman from Company B, and Sergeant First Class Juan Guerra-Llopiz, the supply sergeant for the U.S. Military Advisory Group.

From March 11 to 28, 1991, a joint US Navy-Army team conducted a recovery of the crew and the aircraft. Four of the Soldiers were recovered from inside the helicopter at the lake crash site by a tethered remote controlled submersible drone. However, SGT Coleman’s body could not be located and he remains missing in action.

The Army in 1996 awarded posthumously the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal to all five Soldiers for their service in El Salvador.

Fallen with SPC Simpson:
SGT David McAuthor Coleman
WO1 Eric David Funderburg
SFC Juan L. Guerra-Llopiz
CW2 Paul Stephen Timmer Jr.

Update by the Company B commander in 2024.