S.E.A.
Stories
“First Night SAR”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Several months ago I was reading SOG by Maj. John L. Plaster, USAR (ret). On pages 69-70, in October of 1966,
a night rescue of a F-105 pilot in
Having heard from Col. Jay Strayer about a night rescue in
Steve,
I read the email on the mission "we"
flew that night with interest, but from the description given of our part,
it seems like maybe they knew more about the facts of what we did, than we
did?
First, we never landed in any rice paddy or picked anybody
up from a rice paddy. Second, there were no villages we ever saw and if
there was the visibility was so bad we could have almost been on top of
one and never seen it. Third, we never landed with the help of any flares;
the flares got us into the area, but in the smoke we were completely blinded by
them and before we could start a decent we had to request that the flares be
stopped.
So here is our story and comments by the guy who flew the
mission with me.
“IZZY Freedman”
Jim Rodenberg:
Dear Izzy,
I received your message/story and got a kick out of
reliving the experience. I remember the flight quite well; though I had
forgotten some of the details you mentioned surrounding the mission.
There is nothing I would add or correct.
What I most remember are the flying conditions of that
night. You did most of the flying, but I remember taking the controls on
a few occasions and having to fight vertigo. I felt I was flying with the
left "wing low" the whole time I was at the controls.
I also remember that our pickup was mentioned in a Time
magazine article following the event. The article indicated that we had
"zipped into Tchepone" and made the pickup. I remember we
laughed about the reference to zipping into Tchepone. While Tchepone may
have been the closest town or city of any size, we were actually some distance
from the town. At the time, Tchepone was very well defended with all
kinds of antiaircraft weapons. The spot was too hot for the fighter
jocks, and we would never have attempted to penetrate the airspace.
*On
Provisional
DET3 PARC Nakhon Phanom
2 March 1965
Capt.
There was a lull in the bombing up north
and we were doing nothing but a little training. It seemed like the perfect
time for someone to take a little R&R and Jay Strayer who drew the lucky
straw, departed for
On the morning of the second for some
reason I can not remember, we were tasked to dispatch one of our choppers
to Ubon and so Fred Glover and Neil McCutchan took one of the aircraft and
departed. We thought nothing about it, in fact it was the first thing we had
been asked to do since our arrival in NKP. We still
had three pilots on site and nothing happening.
Later in the day things started to
change. We were notified that an F-105 pilot had ejected in the Tchepone area but for what ever reason the Air Force planned to use other resources to
attempt the rescue. The only other resource of course was Air
We prepared for the mission anyway. We
were briefed by the radar people who were involved and had a good idea of where
the downed pilot was. I was the Rescue Crew Commander for the day with Jim
Rodenberg assigned as the co-plot and it was decided that if we had to go
Warren K. Davis would fly the cover bird and bring along the Flight Surgeon in
the co-pilot seat (PARC policy required 2 aircraft with a fully qualified crew
for all Combat Search and Rescue Missions). Not wanting to
be disqualified by being a pilot short, we used a bit of G.I. ingenuity.
At this time we still had plenty of time to make the pick-up in daylight
and return before darkness and with the extended range provided by Fred Glovers
brilliant range extension system the mission was well within our capability.
As it got later, darkness fell
with no response from Air
It was very dark and we were in the
middle of the Smokey season which made matters worst, especially for the
crew of the second aircraft who were trying to keep us in sight. Additionally,
we had been at NKP for 2
months and still had never been issued maps of
Trying to fly VFR in the dark and thick
smoke made our altitude control terrible. How,
I radioed the HU-16 who advised us
that they had contact with and were over the downed pilot. We felt we had to be
getting very near the area and asked them to drop a flare. In fact we were very
close and as we got closer we were totally blinded by the brightness of the
flares in the thick smoke and had to ask them to hold the flares. They advised
that the pilot’s position was being marked by two small lights on the ground
and looking down we found ourselves directly overhead.
As I said before we had no knowledge of
the terrain and I was thinking the ground could not be much higher then 1,500
above sea-level. We were briefed that the downed pilot’s position was very
close to the trail so I
started down leaving the search and landing lights off not wanting to give away
our position.
After descending about 1,000 feet I suddenly
felt that the lights on the ground that were suppose to be marking the downed
pilot looked too close and threw on the search light.
We were almost in the trees and could
see large limbs. I pulled a lot of pitch and our lovely little HH-43 responded stopping the decent and in
doing so we passed directly over the lights which were in a clearing that
looked large enough to land the Husky. We immediately circled and set up a very
steep approach into the clearing.
It is hard to believe that until we were
on the ground I never even thought about the possibility of the enemy holding
the position or what it was doing there. As we touched down some guys came
running into the clearing wearing what looked like American Fatigues and
carrying U.S. Carbines. As soon as they saw we were Americans they immediately
brought the downed pilot out of the jungle and loaded him in the Aircraft.
After a long very steep vertical takeoff
we finally cleared the trees and with Warren in tow headed for home. There is
no question that we were glad it was over and happy that the pickup was
successful.
*Despite
darkness and smoke, no radio communications with the Survivor, no prior visual
identification of the pilot and an uncertain intelligence estimate, the SAR had
found and recovered Major Panas. Having rescued another “satisfied” customer,
it was a risky way to conduct a combat SAR.
We thought at the time it might have
been the first Air Force pickup of a downed pilot in Laos and for sure the first night pickup. In a
conversation with General Heine Aderholt many years later he told me that the
Air Force would not fly at night and that the first night pickup of a downed
airman in Laos was in
November of 1966 by a SOG helicopter under his command flying out of Vietnam. I had to tell
him no, we did fly at night and did make a night rescue more than a year and a
half earlier.
A couple of things which I did not
understand that night eventually were cleared up. I left the Air Force the end of 1967 and joined Air America in early 68.
Once I got to Laos I finally
figured out that a "Road Watch Team", most likely Thai working for the Agency, saw the pilot leave his
aircraft and managed to get to him before the enemy had a chance to. They
brought him to a clearing that had been cut in the jungle to allow Air America aircraft to
night drop supplies to them. Good workers, it was big enough for a 43 to land
in. One final thing, the pilot who was flying the H-34 that night for Air America was Bob
Hitchman, a very senior Air America pilot and
former Marine. I later worked with Bob in both
Bells and H-34s while with Air America.
I would love to mention the names of the
rest of the crew's on both aircraft and the doctor if we can find them, they
earned a mention.
If you were on this mission or know any
of the unnamed crewmembers, please send the information to: pedronews@libby.org
BRANDY 41
BRANDY21
(RCC) Capt. Israel Freedman (RCC)
Capt Warren Davis
(RCCP) Capt. James Rodenberg (RCCP)
NKP Flight
Surgeon
(CC/FE)
unknown (CC/FE) unknown
(PJ) unknown (PJ) unknown
* Extracted from PJ’s in
Vietnam by SMSGt Robert LaPointe (ret).