Info Sheet - Corrall "Wayne" Yetman
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I am listed on your roster as a CW2 but I was a WO1 while in the unit. I got to D Troop on Jan 2nd 1968 and I am mentioned in Jim Moore’s letter to you (Powell) of January 7th 1968.
I remember flying at least one time with you around Trang Bang when we found a few males near a VC flag.
I was on the first team called to Tan Son Nhut on Jan 30th 1968. We fought most of the day across the highway from the main gate. We were rearming and refueling near the tower. In the morning when we first got there our lead ship had wounded on the first run. There was talk of a groin injury to one of the pilots but I can’t remember who. They landed on the airfield and we landed to pick them up and while we were loading the tower called and informed us that we were in enemy territory.
We took the crew of the lead ship back to D troop and then returned to the fight at Tan Son Nhut. We were basically in mop up mode in the afternoon when I spotted a 51 cal swinging towards us. I pulled the trigger on the mini guns but they didn’t fire. I know that I would have taken them out if the guns would have fired but, since they didn’t, they hit us with their first shot. We filled with smoke and the door gunner was screaming that he was shot in the ass so we landed behind where the main force of the enemy was. It turns out that the shock of the 51 cal hitting the aircraft made the gunner think he was shot in the ass but he was OK when we checked. We set up a defensive position near the aircraft and an RVN squad was coming up from our rear. I was a little worried about whether or not they were friendly but it turned out that they were. We looked at the damage on the aircraft and decided to fly it back to Tan Son Nhut where we landed and one of D Troop's aircraft took us back to the unit. I can’t remember who the crew was but I think the aircraft commander may have been Doc Halliday.
I was wounded in the Hobo Woods on February 18, 1968 while super scouting. The enemy was in a tree and we were low level. A 30 cal armor piercing round came through the left door. Shrapnel from the door went into my left heel and the round went through my right foot. The aircraft commander flew me to the Evac Hospital and I was there several weeks and then sent to Camp Zama Japan and then on to the Hospital at Fort Dix, NJ since the hospitals in Japan were overfull because of Tet and Khe Sanh. After recovering, I was assigned to A company 82nd Avn Bn 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg. While I was at the Evac Hospital several D Troop troopers visited me but I can’t remember who.
C. Wayne Yetman, CW4 (USA retired)