INCIDENT REPORT: MCESG presenting Commendation to 1977 Yaounde Detachment during School December 13 2024 graduation.

Submitted by: Kevin Jarvis (MEGA Life Member - Yaounde/Panama)

Reference: Incident Report - IR_Cameroon_1977_MSGs Save AID Doctor/Family

MCESG is going to present the Yaoundé, Cameroon MSGs aka: “1977 Best Detachment in Africa” with a Commendation for coming to the rescue and saving the life of U.S. AID Dr. Albert Henn and for safeguarding his wife and two children after three locals broke into their home and severely beat him striking him in the head numerous times with pipes.

The four off duty MSGs SGT Warren Kyle, SGT Kevin Jarvis, CPL Domenic Ferlaino and CPL Alejandro Covarrubias responded to Jeanne Henn’s urgent call to SGT James Loehwing at Post 1 late at night at the American Embassy. When the MSGs arrived they checked the home and upon entering found Dr. Henn laying in a pool of blood.

The MSGs did some first aid covering the head wound and immediately transported Dr. Henn to a medical clinic in Yaoundé run by two American Seventh Day Adventist doctors.

Dr. Al Henn survived the severe beating and went on to work another thirty years in Africa helping those less fortunate. Ironically, Dr. Henn was killed in a plane crash in of all places Cameroon on May 5, 2007, almost 30 years to the date when the MSGs saved him. He was returning to his medical clinic that he operated in Nairobi, Kenya from a conference in Monrovia, Liberia when the plane went down.

Dr. Henn’s wife Jeanne continued working as a professor of African studies at Boston University and other schools and authored numerous books. His daughter Julia Henn also pursued a career with U.S. AID and has been stationed in many countries helping those less fortunate like her parents.

The Yaoundé MSGs later all went to their second posts and three of them were selected for SSGT while on MSG duty. They all met their wives in the Marine Corps and are still married to this day.