August-September-October 1968-page 13,14,15

 

“Southeast Asia”

The rescues or evacuations reported here represent only a small number of the many Southeast Asia missions flown in Kaman helicopters during the last few months by U. S. Air Force and Navy crews.

   

DET 8 IN ACTION - In top photos: Air crew runs toward an HH-43 after receiving a crash call. Left to right are Sgt Richard L. Miller, airborne fire protection specialist; Sgt Peter H. Eyrich, pararescue specialist; SSgt Andres B. Perez, flight engineer; and Maj Armand J. Fiola, pilot. Fireman hooks a fire suppression kit to an HH-43 while a pararescueman, leaning out of the door, prepares to give the "all clear" signal to the pilot. With FSK attached, the HH-43B heads toward crash site. In left photo, pilot of hovering HUSKIE directs cooling rotor downwash toward firefighters who are battling blaze with an FSK. In right photo, LtCol Flavious F. Drake, detachment commander, watches intently as one of his rescue teams scrambles during an alert. (USAF photos)

 

Cam Ranh Bay (7 AB) - More than 2, 000 times last year, Air Force men of Det 8, 38th ARRS, Cam Ranh Bay AB, scrambled to save 40 lives and assist in hundreds of inflight emergencies. In the first three months of this year they responded to 455 inflight emergencies and saved 12 lives by their prompt action.

Commanded by LtCol Flavious F. Drake, the seven officers and 20 enlisted men of the detachment are ready to respond to an emergency anytime of the day or night. The detachment's pararescue section is augmented by four airborne firefighters, assigned to the detachment from the base Fire Department, and two medical technicians from the 12th USAF Hospital.

The men of the detachment have a dual mission of both local base rescue and air crew recovery. Locally, the detachment answers all crash calls and inflight emergencies for aircraft landing at the base. It also assists in the evacuation of injured or wounded personnel, both military and civilian. For example: Recently, while swimming in the South China Sea a Navy man was bitten by an undetermined species of sea snake. Beach personnel rescued the unconscious swimmer and gave him artificial respiration. After scrambling, the Det 8 rescue crew was evacuating the victim to the 12th USAF Hospital when his heart stopped! A pararescueman from the rescue squadron immediately began external heart massage on the patient and kept him alive until they landed and 12th hospital physicians took charge of the case.

 

Hovering over thick brush 4 miles from Bien Hoa AB, an HH-43 crew from Det 6, 38th ARRSq, braved small arms fire to rescue a critically wounded U.S. Army soldier. While three Army helicopters flew a circular pattern low overhead TSgt Donald S. Kearton, II, flight engineer, lowered a semirigid litter to Army personnel below. After securing the wounded man in the litter Kearton began hoisting him aboard when the HUSKIE was hit by small arms fire.
"I immediately relowered him to the ground, " said the sergeant, "while the rescue crew commander, Maj James F. Okonek, fought to keep the ship under control. "
"The UH-1 behind me immediately began radioing to the others, 'He's taking fire! He's taking fire!' and the men on the ground dove for cover, " said the Major. "My first concern was for the men under the helicopter and I hovered forward in an attempt to avoid crashing onto them. I didn't really expect the controls to work as we had taken several hits, but when they did we maneuvered forward enough to clear the men below.
"After the shooting stopped we re-maneuvered and made the pickup, " continued Major Okonek. "The short flight to the 93rd Medical Evacuation Hospital was made and the hospital staff assisted us in the offloading."

Assessment of damage to the helicopter after returning to Bien Hoa revealed the craft had taken several hits including one by a 7.62mm armor piercing shell. After repairs the aircraft was returned to alert status. Other members of the HH-43 crew were Maj John V. Lepko, copilot, and Sgt Charles F. Salome, rescue specialist.

In another Det 6 mission, at night, a HUSKIE crew evacuated the seriously injured pilot of an Army O-1 spotter plane which had crashed in dense, enemy-infested jungle 22 miles from Bien Hoa. The vegetation in the area was so thick that the smouldering wreckage could only be seen when passing overhead. A hover was established a few feet above the tree tops and the para­rescueman, Alc Charles R. Inguilli, was lowered on the forest penetrator. In a few minutes the survivor was located and hoisted aboard in a semi-rigid litter. After a five-minute unsuccessful search in the darkened jungle for the other occupant of the plane, Airman Inguilli was hoisted aboard the HH-43 and the helicopter headed for an Army airfield nearby. During the 15 or more minutes the ARRS helicopter hovered over the crash site, cover was flown by fixed-wing aircraft and an Army helicopter which continually orbited at 200 feet, probing the forest with a searchlight for enemy activity. Pilot of the HH-43 was Capt Charles W. Burridge and copilot was Maj Andrew E. Kralj. SSgt James P. Baldwin was flight engineer.

Letters from appreciative Army officials said afterward that the actions of the HH-43 were an "inspiration" and in the "highest tradition of the widely known courage and professionalism of the Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service.. . that it is men of their caliber who make other pilots confident that they will be rescued if their plane should go down in the jungle. " It was also recommended that the crew be decorated for their rescue efforts.  

Fire was threatening to do what the enemy could not - force a company of South Korean soldiers to abandon their hilltop position. Ironically, the fire started after an airstrike on the hostile forces. Although the ROK soldiers could withdraw, they could not move their ammunition, weapons and provisions in time to escape the flames.
An HH-43 from Det 12, 38th ARRSq, took off from Nha Trang AB with a fire suppression kit and headed for the area. Aboard the HUSKIE were portable fire extinguishers and shovels. Small arms and artillery fire were reported on one jungle-covered slope of the hill so Capt Melroy Borland, RCC, landed the FSK near the hilltop on the side "sterilized" by the airstrikes and fire. Tall trees bordering the landing zone were a scant ten feet from the rotor blades and gusty winds complicated hovering. Sgts Willie R. Johnson and William R. Weidner, firefighters, and a pararescueman Alc Louis C. Felker, leaped out and extinguished a fire burning within 20 yards of the ROK position. Then they moved down the slope and extinguished other fires. The Korean soldiers assisted and provided security. With the threat of fire removed, a landing area was cleared for the HH-43 and the crew and FSK were recovered. Maj Bruce C. Bowden was the copilot on the mission.

 

In a pre-dawn mission, an HH-43 crew from Det 2, 38th ARRSq, Takhli RTAFB, Thailand, scrambled after an F-105 crashed in a rice paddy studded with 20-foot trees. Capt Andrew J. M. Archer landed in a clearing nearby and the fire suppression kit and crew were off­loaded. The Captain then hovered the helicopter and directed his landing light toward the injured pilot, to aid his crew in locating him in the darkness. The downed airman was taken to the helicopter and evacuated to the hospital. After daylight it was found that the FSK had been placed within 20 feet of a large unexploded bomb. LtCol Lawrence W. Heflin, commander of Det 2, pointed out afterward that, to the best of his knowledge, this is the first known instance where an F-105 has flown into the ground at 400 plus knots and the pilot survived. Other members of the HUSKIE crew were Maj Bruce C. Smith, copilot; SSgt Thomas J. Nicholson and Sgt Richard W. Turner, rescue specialists; Sgt Henry A. Moehrke, medical technician.
(add by Ragay : 29 January 1968 , F105 pilot 1/Lt R.J. Maxwell - departing Takhli. "The pilot was blown from the aircraft")  

 

Capt Bobby L. Meadows and his HH-43B crew scrambled with a fire suppression kit as soon as Det 3, 38th ARRSq, at Ubon AB, Thailand, was notified that an Australian F-86 had crashed in downtown Ubon. The aircraft had exploded on impact and two houses were on fire when the HUSKIE landed in a small garden nearby. Disregarding exploding ammunition in the wreckage, Sgt James M. Payne, medical technician, and Sgts Donald W. Jowers and John L. Tracy, rescue specialists, extinguished the fire in the cockpit area in an attempt to locate the pilot. His body was later found some distance away. When the FSK was out of foam, Sergeants Jowers and Tracy used the remaining air pressure in the kit to put out a small fire in a nearby house. HUSKIE copilot on the mission was 1stLt John R. Bland, Jr.    (add by Ragay : RAAF Sabre Mk.32 (F-86) from No. 78 Sqn, serial no. A94-986, crashed on 3 January 1968 near Ubon )

 

In two separate missions during a 15-hour period, an HH-43 crew from Det 10, 38th ARRSq, at Binh Thuy AB, saved the lives of three U. S. Navy River Patrol Boat (PBR) crewmen and a Vietnamese Army (ARVN) soldier. The detachment now has a total of almost 30 saves since Jan 1 (1968). The first "scramble call" came from a PBR which took a direct hit from a Viet Cong B-40 rocket while patrolling at night on the Ba Sac river; three crew members were seriously injured. Fifteen minutes later the HUSKIE rendezvoused with two Navy UH-1D gunships over the pickup point and then landed in a soccer field just outside the district village of Tra On.

"The most serious problem we faced was the darkness," the HH-43 pilot, Capt Laurence W. Conover, said. "When we approached the soccer field we saw several tracer rounds go across the field and, with no lighting available, we didn't know whether the Viet Cong were in the vicinity."  

At noon the following day, the same crew once again carried out a life-saving mission. Another PBR, two miles southeast of Tra On, came under VC fire and an ARVN soldier suffered a serious head wound. By 12:25 p, m, the injured man had been hoisted from the moving PBR and delivered to a Vietnamese hospital near Can Tho city.

With Captain Conover on both flights were Capt Leslie E. Johnson, copilot; Alc Archelous Whitehead, flight engineer; and Alc Larry D. Nicholson, pararescueman. Captain Johnson and Airman Nicholson have both participated in more than a dozen life-saving missions since Jan 1.

 

In one night, an HH-43 crew from Det 10 also made six combat saves within a three-hour period. The first was made when Army helicopter crewmen and a wounded soldier were rescued after their helicopter was downed by enemy fire five miles from Can Tho.
The second combat save was accomplished at 1:45 a. m. , about three hours after the first, by the same crew. They picked up an F-100 pilot who was shot down by ground fire one mile north of Binh Thuy. 
(add by Ragay 3 Oct 2007 :  this maybe the mission - dated 14 February 1968 - described by the F-100 pilot in "PedroNews" October 2007 - if correct the F-100D was 56-3304 of  3 TFW, 90 TFS ; please follow this link :  http://users.acninc.net/padipaul/pnl020/PNL020SEA.htm )  
Pilots on both missions were Captains Conover and Johnson. In the photograph the other two members of the crew, Airman Nicholson, left, pararescueman, and TSgt Kenneth Hogan, flight engineer, are shown carrying the wounded soldier. Army personnel are at the right. (USAF photo)  

 

The first night pickup ever accomplished from a moving river patrol boat was made by Maj James F. Okonek while on his first mission involving PBR's. This was Det 10's 20th combat save for '68. The HH-43 crew scrambled after a Navy crewman suffered critical head wounds when the PBR came under hostile fire. With no secure area available, a night stokes litter pickup from the fast moving PBR was called for. As a flight of Seawolf gun ships circled overhead, the boat signaled its position and a blackout approach was made. Following direction given by Airman Nicholson, the RCC hovered over the boat and the pickup was made. Despite the possibilities for a navigational error while flying in the total darkness blanketing the Mekong Delta area, the flight to the hospital afterward was made without difficulty. Less than an hour elapsed from time of initial rescue notification until the seaman was safely under the doctors' care. Copilot on the mission was Captain Johnson and Sergeant Whitehead was flight engineer.

To evacuate a sailor with a serious gunshot wound, a Det 10 HUSKIE was landed on an LST which was plowing its way through five-foot swells in the South China Sea. Neither Captain Conover, RCC, or LtCol Roland E. Specman, the copilot, had ever before landed on a ship while it was underway but the pickup was made without incident. On the way to the hospital, the patient was treated by Alc John C. Wilkins, pararescueman. Flight engineer on the 200-mile flight was SSgt Gordon L. Browning.

 

Tan Son Nhut AB (7AF) - Capt James T. McComsey, an HH-43B pilot with Det 14, 38th ARRSq here, nears the end of his Vietnam duty with nearly 200 rescue missions and 100 combat hours to his credit. He will continue duty as an HH-43B pilot when he reports to his next assignment with Det 12, CARRC at Randolph AFB, Tex.

"My most rewarding mission in Vietnam came when our crew was called to rescue a small Vietnamese boy from a mine field near the base," recalled McComsey. The boy had accidently wandered off into the field and was injured when one of the mines detonated. We had to hover over him and then retrieve him in a rescue basket that was lowered to six inches off the ground. Fifteen minutes after our alert call came in, the boy was in an ambulance and on his way to the hospital. "
Captain McComsey has been awarded the Air Medal during his Vietnam tour.

His squadron is a unit of the 3rd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Group which is responsible for the search and rescue support of all allied forces in Southeast Asia.

 

PLEIKU (7AF) - Capt Francis B. Gilligan, who recently completed his tour as an HH-43 rescue crew commander with Det 9, 38th ARRSq at Pleiku AB, has been reassigned to March AFB, Calif., following his own rescue in South Vietnam. In one of his final missions Captain Gilligan was picking up wounded U. S. Army personnel when his own helicopter was shot down by enemy ground fire. He was later rescued by another helicopter crew.

"My personal feeling of exhilaration and gratitude in being saved made me realize the feeling that others have for rescue forces in Southeast Asia and it made my job during the past year even more meaningful for me, "Gilligan said. During his Vietnam tour, he completed more than 100 combat missions. He earned the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart.

Commenting on his Vietnam duty, Gilligan said, "In a war there are many missions dealing with airpower. But I believe there is none as rewarding or important as the rescue mission. The motto of the Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service - That Others May live - gives one some idea of the dedication of the rescue crews and the personal satisfaction I have found in performing an important job."

 

 

Cattle Cowed By Capt Conover

As an HH-43 rescue crew commander, Capt Laurence W. Conover has engaged in many rescue missions - he holds six Kaman Scrolls of Honor and 15 mission awards. Many of these flights were made during his present assignment with Det 10, 38th ARRSq, at Binh Thuy AB which was also the scene of his most unusual mission. Unfortunately, it does not warrant an award but, on the other hand, it certainly can't be allowed to pass unnoticed. 

Captain Conover was taking off on a support mission recently when the tower contacted him saying, "Binh Thuy tower would appreciate any assistance you can offer in getting some cattle off the approach end of runway six. " 

A few seconds later, six Brahma bulls suddenly found their peace and quiet disturbed by a terrifying "monster" which appeared overhead with threatening flapping noises and dust­raising blasts of rotor downwash. One look and the cattle started double-timing it for the edge of the runway as Captain Conover skillfully maneuvered the HUSKIE to direct them in traditional cowpoke fashion.

Naturally, under the circumstances, there was only one thing left for the pilot to do. He punched the transmit button and alerted the tower with an appropriate Western cry... "Yipeeeee! Head 'em up and move 'em out!" Then he asked the question so familiar to late TV watchers, "Where do you want these mavericks?"

 

last update : 03/10/2007