Gerald Flynn

Gerald Flynn, along with fellow Peace Corps Volunteers Paul Bond and Troy Ross, Paul Bond, was among the 49 killed when LANSA flight 501, from Lima to Cusco, crashed shortly after takeoff on April 27, 1966.

From The Catholic Northwest Progress, Volume 69, Number 19, 13 May 1966

Peace Corpsman Gerald Flynn Requiem

Requiem Mass was offered for Gerald F. Flynn May 9 at St. Joseph’s Church; Gerald, 23, a Peace Corpsman, was killed April 27 in an airplane crash on a flight from Lima to Cuzco, Peru. Gerald was the son of Mr. and Mrs, Joseph F. Flynn, 2502 E. Roanoke Street, He was a 1958 graduate and Merit Scholarship winner of Seattle Prep and a graduate of Seattle University, Assigned to Loja, Ecuador, since January, 1965, Gerald had been vacationing in Peru. He entered the Peace Corps in 1964 and would have fulfilled his two-year service next September, At Seattle University Gerald was junior class president in 1961, member of the student Judicial Board in 1962 and-first vice president of Alpha Phi Omega and an ROTC cadet captain, Besides his parents Gerald is survived by a sister, Kathleen Flynn and a brother, Army Lieut. Michael J. Flynn, both of Seattle, Burial was in Holyrood Cemetery, directed by Booth Ashmore Mortuary,

From a Fellow Volunteer:

I served in the Peace Corps in Ecuador from 1964-1966. I worked as a civil engineer on several infrastructure projects. In early 1966 I asked for assistance from the Quito head office because I needed help to create a topographic survey of a region near Santo Domingo de los Colorados. I had inherited responsibility for completing a bridge over one of the local rivers, but discovered one morning after a three day rain that the river overtopped the bridge piers.

Gerald Flynn and Paul Bond were seconded to me. They had completed their assignments and were waiting discharge from the Corps. They took a bus to Santo Domingo. We met and went right to work. The project took about a week. Each of us spent ten hours a day in the tropical sun, taking measurements. Then we returned to Santo Domingo, and over the next two days I completed the map. The result was good.

During our time together we worked hard, laughed hard, drank a lot of beers, and talked about the future. Gerry was returning to Tennessee, Paul to Seattle. Since I planned on going to Seattle to work for Boeing at the conclusion of my term of service, later in 1966, Paul and I agreed to look each other up.

They were quite excited to finish their Peace Corps term, because they planned to visit Macchu Picchu before returning to the US. We said goodbye, and I thought that was that.

Several days later, in Quito, I overheard a Short Wave Radio transmission between the Peace Corps Office and the US Embassy in Lima, Peru. The discussion topic was dental X-ray records for Gerry and Paul. Their flight from Lima to Cuzco crashed into a mountain in bad weather, with complete loss of life.

I was deeply saddened to hear of the loss of those two good guys. I attempted to find Paul’s family in Seattle when I moved there, without success.

Bless their memories.
-Regards, Nick Graves, PC Ecuador Education 1964.


 

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3 Responses to Gerald Flynn

  1. Bee Carr September 14, 2020 at 12:50 pm #

    Correction — The cemetery is Holyrood Cemetery in Shoreline, Washington.

  2. Bee Carr September 13, 2020 at 2:41 pm #

    Gerald Flynn was from Seattle. He is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Shoreline, WA north of Seattle. He had. Twin brother, Michael, and a sister, Kathleen.

    • Mary Hetland November 2, 2022 at 1:37 pm #

      Correct. Gerald would have returned to Seattle, not Tennessee. He was also 26 and not 23.

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