WarStory Cobra Medivacs LOH Crew

War Stories

Cobra Medivacs LOH Crew - 24 Dec 1969

Accident Summary and Report from Historian

The passing of 54 years has robbed me of many memories, but the events of that day were burned into my hard drive pretty deeply so I can still recall the gist of what happened.

It was Christmas Eve, 1969, and I was 2 weeks “short” of going home. I was the Cobra half of a Hunter/Killer team on a routine mission, just one of many I had been on in the almost one year I had been in country. My front-seat pilot had just arrived in our unit, and I'm thinking this was his first mission. I can't remember his name but for the purpose of this narrative I will call him Joe.
The mission proceeded without incident until we got to a little clearing in a wooded area. A large dead tree was in the clearing close to the tree line. My Scout pilot said he saw something suspicious near that tree and was gonna take a closer look. I acknowledged that and kept my eye on him. As he circled around the tree, maybe a couple of times, I watched as his Loach suddenly erupted in a ball of fire and crashed to the ground. I had no idea what had happened but my first thought was that no one could have survived that. But, then, I saw the three crew members trying to scramble away from the burning wreck.

ammo bays

I got off a mayday call and told Base I was gonna land and assist the crew. And Bruce, you are right, the Cobra is definitely not designed for medivac! But it does have that large cargo bay where the ammo canisters are housed. After landing, Joe and I jerked out the canisters and put two of the more seriously injured into that bay. About that time the ammo in the Loach started cooking off so that spiked the adrenaline level even higher!

We couldn't shut the ammo doors and I was afraid the injured might fall out so I told Joe to ride in there with them and make sure that didn't happen, I then put the least injured man in Joe's seat and resumed my position, revved up the engine to full power and pulled collective. I was never so glad as I was when that bird became airborne again!

I made a beeline for Chuchi and requested medical personnel to meet us at the runway. As I approached I was given clearance for a straight-in landing and saw the medical team waiting. Upon landing the injured were quickly removed to ambulances, and after Joe resumed his seat we lifted off and went home!

So ended the most memorable Christmas Eve I've ever had! And other than the gift to the world that Christmas represents, the positive outcome of the day was the best Christmas gift I have ever received. After the adrenaline wore off I reflected on all the many ways that scenario could have gone terribly wrong, but was (and am) very thankful that it played out in probably the best way possible considering the circumstances.

I visited the crew in the hospital but I don't remember discussing the details of the incident at all, rather the conversation revolved around their injuries and how they were coming along. A few days later I was on the way back to the states and that is the last I ever heard from the crew, except for a letter one of them sent thanking me for rescuing him. I regret that I have lost that letter in the subsequent years.

And so ever since, I have puzzled over what happened. I did some internet searches but never found anything. So, hats off to Mike for finding the details (thank you). So - it was a tree strike just as I had surmised. If the Loach had been shot down Joe and I would have surely come under heavy fire when we landed and exited the aircraft. In that case we would have probably all been killed and Charlie would have been in possession of a still-running Cobra! But thankfully that did not happen so I knew there had to be an alternate explanation.

But that fireball is what sticks in my mind. I wouldn't think JP4 is that explosive, but I suppose if a tank was ruptured on impact with the tree and fuel sprayed out in a fine mist it might explode. I definitely did not see a tree impact. One second a buzzing Loach; the next second a fireball completely engulfing the Loach.

Now that I have some names I'm gonna do some more searching to see if I can find the status and possible locations of the crew members. It would also be interesting if I could find “Joe” and get his recollection of the day. He was a new guy just coming in and I was an old guy going out so I didn't get to know him. But I can find no fault with his actions of that day. He performed admirably. If anyone reading this recognizes himself as one of the Loach crew members or my front-seat pilot, or knows anyone who may be these individuals, please contact me at boborobe@yahoo.com.

Robert Bobo was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 2 February 1970.

Report from Historian Mike Peake:

We did not have any record of an aircraft crass/loss for 12-24-1969 in our Map Grids project, and our Daily Logs for that date are fragmented. I did a search for 1969 in my OH-6 database and I lucked out with one D Troop aircraft that MASN shows had an accident on that date.

Punched the tail number, 68-17285, into the VHPA database and came up with two incident reports of the crash. The two enlisted men on the report are in our rosters, but I couldn't find the pilot WO1 D. O. Simpson. Thought maybe a misspelling, but couldn't find anyone close doing a quick search. Also, we show Robert T. Bobo beginning service with Centaurs in 1970.

I'm making a new entry based on this copied off the disk:

Information on U.S. Army helicopter OH-6A tail number 68-17285

The Army purchased this helicopter 0969

Total flight hours at this point: 00000304

Date: 12/24/1969

Unit: D/3/4 CAV

South Vietnam

UTM grid coordinates: XT693182

Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Defense Intelligence Agency Helicopter Loss database. Also: OPERA (Operations Report. )

Loss to Inventory.

Information on U.S. Army helicopter OH-6A tail number 68-17285

The Army purchased this helicopter 0969

Total flight hours at this point: 00000304

Date: 12/24/1969

Accident case number: 691224041 Total loss or fatality Accident

Unit: D/3/4 CAV

The station for this helicopter was Cu Chi in

Number killed in accident = 0. Injured = 3. Passengers = 0.

costing 104969

Source(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Army Aviation Safety Center database.

Crew Members:

P W1 SIMPSON DO

CE E5 PEARSON RG

G E4 CARTER DE

Accident Summary:

AIRCRAFT WAS A PART OF A HUNTER KILLER TEAM, ON A VISUAL RECONNAISSANCE MISSION. AT APPROXIMATELY 1515 HOURS THEY WERE IN THE VICINITY OF XT 697185, LOW LEVEL, APPROXIMATELY 15 FEET, AND TRAVELING IN A DIRECTION OF 210 TO 220 DEGREES, WITH 70 TO 70 KTS OF AIRSPEED. WO1 SIMPSON'S ATTENTION WAS DIVERTED BY A POSSIBLE TARGET SIGHTING AT THE FIVE O'CLOCK POSITION TO THE AIRCRAFT. WHEN HIS ATTENTION WAS RETURNED TO THE FRONT OF THE AIRCRAFT A TREE WAS IN THE AIRCRAFT'S FLIGHT PATH TO THE IMMEDIATE FRONT. THE PILOT APPLIED HARD RIGHT CYCLIC BUT WAS UNABLE TO AVOID IMPACT. THE AIRCRAFT BURST INTO FLAME AND CRASHED. ALL SAFETY EQUIPMENT IN THE AIRCRAFT WAS IN WORKING CONDITION, THE RESULTING INJURIES WERE FROM THE FIRE AND DECELERATIVE FORCES.