The Cambodia Medivac - 1972-3
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We were in Cambodia and littlle bird (LOH) went down in the parade field of a North Vietnamese Army unit. There was 51 cal machine guns set up around the field but they weren’t manned.
We did the low level flair thing and landed. My crew jumped off grabbed the crewmembers and away we went; except by that time they had manned the machine guns and they started unloading on me. One round hit the AC/DC inverter in the nose of the bird and wiped out the backside of the instrument panel. The next hit the bottom of my seat and turned my ass black and blue for weeks. The next few went through the fuel cell and the battery. The remainder went through the tail boom.
I grabbed what I thought was max power and pulled it out of there. There were Cobras giving me cover that kept motioning for me to sit the bird down and I kept shaking my head no. About that time I lost my hydraulics and knew that I would have to set it down like and airplane and soon.
The Cobras called for medivac to meet us at French Fort just inside of Viet Nam. About thirty minutes later I planted that bird on a dirt road and shut it down. It left there on a Chinook to go back to the USA for rebuild.
The pilot and gunner that I had picked up were put on a medivac and carried to a MASH unit.
I was considered for but could not receive the silver star for that action because I wasn’t supposed to be in Cambodia. Of course a leg colonel in Viet Nam got a silver star because he was flying and covered the launch of the medivac, the Chinook recovery bird, etc. That turned my heart off from wearing medals unless I was told to do so.