HEROES

EDITORS NOTE: The following narrative was extracted from a DET6 38ARRS Mission Report provided by (P) Chuck Nadler

Det 6, 38^th ARRS was notified at 14:30, 11 Jun 66 by 3JSARC of 4 U.S. Army wounded located 53 miles NNW of BNH near Loc Ninh, RVN that required evacuation by hoist from a jungle area. We were advised to delay takeoff until Pedro 79, a HH-43B from Tan Son Nhut, arrived at Bien Hoa to accompany us.

Pedro 79 topped off his fuel and departed TSN at 15:00. Maj Kessler and A1c O’Bierne from Det 6 flew as co-pilot and rescue specialist respectively in Pedro 79 and, both Pedro Seven~Nine and Pedro 73 (Det 6 HH-43F) were airborne from Bien Hoa at 15:15.

We picked up Firebird 93, a flight of UH-1 gunships enroute and landed at Loc Ninh airstrip for a quick situation briefing. We took off for the pickup area, necessarily skirting U.S. artillery firing. Dancer 3, an Army OH-13 led me into the spot, a hole in trees 75 feet high. The first wounded soldier was hoisted up in the stokes litter.

Since he was too badly wounded to transfer out of the litter, I decided to return him to the aid station at Loc Ninh. At Loc Ninh, I picked up a second stokes litter and a chain saw from Pedro 79 and two more chain saws from the Army. These would be lowered into the hole to enlarge the area for helicopter landing. On my second trip into the area, I was driven off by “friendly” artillery fire landing within 100 yards. I returned to Loc Ninh to figure out a safe way back into the area. Dancer 3 found a safe route 150 meters wide so I returned to the area and lowered the 3 chain saws and 2 stokes litters to the ground. Two severely wounded soldiers were hoisted into the helicopter.

While I was returning the wounded to Loc Ninh, Pedro 79 also lowered 2 soldiers with clearing tools into the hole and recovered 2 wounded by forest penetrator. I returned to the area for 2 more wounded, dropped them off at the aid station and refueled my helicopter.

I made a fourth trip into the area and picked up our 6 and 7th wounded. While offloading them at the aid station, Dancer 3 said that area might now be large enough for me to attempt a landing.

I approached the hole slowly and was talked down to the ground by my crew. We had to move sideways when below the jungle canopy to avoid striking downed trees with our rotor blades.

I had to hold my right gear off the ground while loading the 4 wounded since we were sitting on a slope. We offloaded our 2 stokes litters to lighten our load. I took off vertically and backwards and cleared the tree tops without incident. We had about 4 feet of blade clearance. The four wounded were deposited at Loc Ninh. U.S. Army UH-1s then landed in the area and recovered the one remaining wounded and KIAs. The UH-1s started picking up automatic weapon fire on the approach into the hole. Both Pedro helicopters refueled and after picking up our stokes litters and chain saw, each helicopter loaded 2 wounded litter cases and flew them to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital, then returned to Bien Hoa AB. As the hoisting operations progressed during late afternoon, it became apparent that not all of the wounded could be recovered before darkness unless an area was cleared for Dustoff (Army UH-1 helicopters) to land. Pedro 79 (HH-43B) made the one approach into the area to lower clearing tools and troops in order to expedite the clearing operation. Pedro 79 flew top cover for Pedro 73 the remaining time. Weather was not a factor on the mission though we skirted thunderstorms in returning to Bien Hoa. Crew coordination was excellent as was the services of Dancer 3, the Army OH-13. Ground fire was observed by Army helicopters but not by the Rescue helicopters. Artillery fire was close but seemed to be under control. F-100 and F-4 aircraft made bombing and strafing runs 1/2 mile to our west.