• intro
• KIA
• Deceased

Info Sheet - James Roy Pearson

Killed in Action 04 November 1966 - Hobo Woods

Comments: Lloyd Allred, Albert Menzl, Nelda Thomas, Cris Lewis

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................

James Roy Pearson
Sergeant, US Army
D TRP, 3RD SQDN, 4TH CAVALRY, 25TH INF DIV, USARV
Son of Mr and Mrs James R. Pearson, Lakeland, FL

Born: 05/01/1946 --- KIA: 11/04/1966 --- Home of Record: Lakeland, FL

CASUALTY DATA
Start Tour: 01/04/1966
Incident Date: 11/04/1966
Casualty Date: 11/04/1966
Age at Loss: 20
Location: South Vietnam – Ho Bo Woods
Remains: Body was recovered
Casualty Type: HOSTILE, HELICOPTER - CREW
Casualty Detail: AIR LOSS

HoBo Woods – Sgt. James Roy Pearson KIA (Killed In Action) November 4, 1966 while serving as door gunner on helicopter (…….). Lt. Lloyd B. Allred was the AC (Aircraft Commander)…(ad info about other pilot & crew chief).

Lt. Lloyd B. Allred (Pilot in Command):

The mission for that day was a straight forward type of operation. Our job was to cover some resupply ships to a number of company size perimeters located just north of our base camp at Cu Chi. Our ship was the second ship of a two ship fire team. We covered (protected) two ships, one at a time, into their respective zones, then covered them as they came out after unloading their supplies. While covering the third ship we started receiving a little bit of ground fire from the VC. As we were protecting the fourth ship we got hit by ground fire…this is when Jim (Pearson) was hit. I looked back & saw that he was hit, slumping in his seat. He did not suffer. My thoughts were complete and utter anguish. I broke from my team-leader and rushed back to base camp…deep down I knew that it would not be of any help. The helicopter took a number of hits, it was not shot down, nor did it crash.

The above are some excerpts from a letter written by Lt Allred to Sgt. Pearson’s sister. Lt. Allred went on the say, “When ever I had to describe him it would be that he was strong as an ox, worked like a horse, had the physic of Charles Atlas, and the disposition of Jimmy Stewart.”

Lt. Allred said, “One thing I remember about your bother is when I got wounded a few months earlier. I ended up with some shrapnel in my left arm, and couldn’t move it I was bleeding quite badly when Jim unbuckled his seat belt and came up to my seat and bandaged me up. Then when we landed at the hospital pad, he walked me into the MASH unit, holding my arm, until the medical people could get me help.”

On the morning of 4 November 1966 we were assigned a mission to escort resupply helicopters into an area where US forces were engaged with the enemy. I was the copilot of one of the two gunships and Roy was my door gunner. Before we became airborne we had to sit on the ground at Cu Chi with our engines idling and our rotors turning while the resupply helicopters were getting ready. I lit up a cigarette to spend the time and Roy, seeing that, admonished me that we weren’t suppose to be smoking during that phase of flight. I remember grumbling about it but knowing he was right, I butted it out!

When we were finally airborne and over our objective, the resupply helicopters would come in, one at a time as we circled the camp, firing into the trees and area around the camp. The Viet Cong were dug in and fired back at us. In one instance an enemy bullet came up through the helicopter, passing in front of Roy and just over the top of my head, exiting out the plexiglass window above my head. A split second before that, I had shifted myself forward to look down through the chopper’s chin bubble. That move saved my life by allowing the round to pass by just above my head. When the metal fragments showered the cockpit, one fragment struck me at the base of the back of my head. Unharmed, I was nevertheless quite jolted and since I had the flex gun’s (four M60 machine guns that were hydraulically controlled by the pilot to aim and fire) apparatus in my left hand with my finger on the trigger, I accidentally squeezed off about a half dozen rounds from the flex guns. Looking up, I saw the rounds slam into the ground right in front of our friendly troops. They were suddenly diving behind their bunkers. They got on the radio and chewed us out for firing into their positions. Since we had suffered some damage to our gunship, we had to call off the mission temporarily until we could land and inspect our ship.

Flying to a nearby Special Forces camp, we landed to inspect the aircraft. I remember shaking from the adrenalin, and while lighting up a cigarette I heard Roy say, “Hey, let me have one of those.” We chuckled about it as I lit his cigarette for him. After our crew chief inspected the ship and found no serious damage we got airborne quickly to continue the mission.

The resupply helicopters would come in from the west and depart to the west using the same flight path which was free of ground fire. For some reason there was no coordination between the resupply aircraft and us, their gun cover. I guess the pilots just wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as they could. The problem for us was that we needed to be in the correct position to lay fire down as the resupply ship exited the scene. When the final ship turned around in the LZ and hastily departed, our ship was completely out of position and my aircraft commander who was flying the gunship made a right 360 degree turn to get in position. As we rolled out of our turn our flight path took us directly toward a small wooded and brushy area between us and the friendlies. I had an intuitive, sinking gut feeling about the patch of woods and wanted to spray it down with fire, but the friendlies were just beyond. Since we were at a low altitude, there would have been some ricochets from our fire going into the friendly’s positions. We sprayed them once before and couldn’t let that happen again. All these thoughts passed through my mind in a second and so, and as I had done on previous occasions when in doubt, I held my fire. Tragically, my gut feeling proved correct. There were Viet Cong in that patch of woods, no doubt in dug out bunkers. When we passed overhead they fired several shots. The first thing I noticed was that the fuel pump warning light came on, since it was more or less in front of me. Immediately after, our crew chief announced that Roy had been hit. I turned to look and saw that he was laid over on his left side, unconscious.

We flew directly back to Cu Chi as fast as the ship could take us, landing on the hospital pad about 15 minutes later. Roy was unconscious and completely unresponsive. I remember how Roy was a muscular, well built man and how hard it was to lift him down to the litter in order to carry him into the hospital. Not wanting to leave him we stood alongside the physicians as they went to work on him. We were all in a state of shock. I remember we had to soon leave as none of us could bare watching this any further. At no time did Roy regain consciousness, although I cannot say that he did not suffer. No one will know. I remember that he was quickly transferred to another hospital at another base where he died. Perhaps he may have lingered on until the next day, hence the date of 5 November that you had received.

I remember returning to the unit in a dazed sort of way. I had to clean up, change clothes, etc. Later we went to the maintenance yard where our chopper was located in order to inspect it. I discovered the bullet hole where it entered the ship from the rear before striking Roy. I peered into it and discovered that it bore sited directly above the left pilot seat where I had been sitting. I realized then that Roy had stopped the bullet that was headed for me. Jeanice, this has haunted me my entire life. Why Roy and not me? What if I had only laid some fire down on that patch of woods forcing the VC to keep their heads down?

Some years ago I read a book written by Col. David Hackworth, a soldier’s soldier. In it he said “Only those who’ve walked that walk of life and death can understand a soldier’s ‘If I’d only’ replay of events.” At the time it gave me some comfort and so I wrote it down, eventually to share it with you. Drawing on my years as a professional pilot, when I look back on that time I wonder why there wasn’t more critical analysis of our tactics and techniques. Just the month before, we took some wounded casualties, on my ship again, while flying low level in similar hostile circumstances. Why didn’t we change our tactics then? I know that after Roy’s death we did change, staying at a much higher altitude when escorting ships in and out of LZs. At the time I was 20 years old, one of the youngest pilots in the unit. I had only been in gunships for about two months so I was fairly new to it. At the time I was too young to question the way things were done.

I regret that I didn’t personally know Roy, the man who allowed me to live. Perhaps Jeanice, you can share with me some remembrances of Roy so that we can both honor this man’s life. I would love any photos if they are digitized. You could send them as e-mail attachments.
It’s my personal belief that my previous incarnation was short lived. This time around the Universe has been merciful with me and has so far allowed my string of life to extend more fully. In times of deep contemplation and prayer I am moved to tears of thanksgiving over this blessing. I hope that Roy, wherever he is, is in a state of grace. I am deeply offended at the thought of our young men and women in uniform being sacrificed for some nebulous cause in a far distant and backwards place. Perhaps this is the nature of our dark age, to be in a state of perpetual war.

...........................................................................................................................................................................

Nelda Thomas
relative
Argyle Georgia
Never Forgotten
manny g- Evidently you and your life has been touched and left scared by what some of us know only as the battle in vietnam. I suppose for those who went there, whether they were together in body or not, were together in mind and spirit. You all went there for the same reason, and it took a special person with a special heart to have done that. A million THANK YOUS will not be enough to thank you for ALL you did to fight for my freedom. Sky Lava@yahoo.com- Never any better spoken- Every day my heart thanks God for the freedom we have to worship, for God gave these men what it took inside them to be willing to go blindly into a place of the unknown to face the terrors unknown for those of us who are TRUE PROUD AMERICANS!!! Chris Lewis- I am so very sure that this brave man, Roy Pearson, would have considered it an honor to know that your brother named his son after him and that your brother spoke so highly of him. Many, many people were devastated,I'm sure, but for your brother to have always wished he had gone to vietnam with him to watch his back, was a mighty courageous thing for him to feel. Those kids(20 yrs old)as well as the older ones who didn't get to come home, who not were killed, but laid down their lives, NONE deserved to die. We know they were all good descent men and we whose lives were touched by vietnam, will forever carry scars in our hearts and minds. I think often of the many, many families who were preparing for the long awaited HOME COMING of there precious son, husband, daddy, or brother. For Roy's family, it was almost Thanksgiving. He was to be home to stay by Christmas 1966, barely 7 weeks away. After 42 years, 10 months and 2 days, the pain, the memories of the men in uniform who came to the door, the screams of Roy's daddy and momma, the horror is all still real. They neither were ever the same. His daddy died 1 year, 7 months later at age 52. For his momma, only brother, and 6 sisters, the questions never ceased. What really happened? Where did it happen? I believe the Armed Forces have to tell families the bare necessities, so unless and until we find someone who was there, we will never know. To ALL of you, Thank you from the family, for after all these years, having the heart and taking the time to speak so kindly in memory of a, 'ONE OF A KIND' young man.(I named my only son after him, James) I know these things and more because I am Roy's sister, Jeanice Pearson\Thomas. I and a sister answered the door that day. The uniformed men went to where momma and daddy was at, and life was never the same again. My daughter-in-law set up a Memorial for Roy at http://www.VirtualWall.org/dp/PearsonJRO1a.htm in 2001, in case you haven't saw it. ROY- There are no words to describe how much we miss him, and in our hearts, the love for him never lessened. If there's anyone who knew him in nam, Please contact me at destinationunlimited@live.com Sep 6, 2009

Chris Lewis
He was my brother's best friend
Grove City, OH
My Brother's Best Friend
James Roy Pearson known to my family as "Roy" Pearson, was my brother, Robert Smith's best friend while growing up in the 60's in Lakeland, Florida. Roy often ate supper with us and loved my mother's homemade biscuits. He was a very polite, kind young man when I knew him. He was from a local family who were just plain old country folks like us. My brother Robert thought of Roy like a brother. He was devastated when Roy was killed. Later in the 70's my brother named his only son Robert "Roy" to honor his fallen best friend. He never forget Roy and spoke of him often. I went to school with Roy's sister Jeanice and our families knew each other. I will never forget the feeling of sorrow when we found out Roy had been killed. My brother Robert always wished he had gone to Viet Nam with him to watch his back. My brother Robert accidentally electrocuted killed himself in 1983 while welding a homemade trailer. His son Roy is a grown man today with children. I will always remember Roy Pearson as a good, decent young man who didn't deserve to die. He will be forever missed. (Christine Smith Lewis, Grove city, OHIO)
Saturday, September 03, 2005