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Viet Nam POW rescue attempt


hawk3370
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I have read with great interest the many stories posted in this section. And my heart goes out to all the valant veterans that have served this country and their families that supported them during their absence. I have noted that there are not a lot of VN related material. So with much abandon I thought I would throw out a personal incident that I was invovled in while serving with D Company, 101st Aviation Battalion, 101st Airborne Division in 1971. As with most combat operations, heroic actions or humerous incidents are never planned but are forced upon us and its only later that we consider the effects of those actions. One such incident (one of many) that I experienced during my two years in country evolved around an attempt to rescue american POW's in Loas.

 

We had received intel that several US military personnel were being held in a small POW camp about 20 miles inside Loas near A-Shau Valley. A 20 man SF team from the Marble Mountain launch site was tasked to attempt the rescue. I was in command of a heavy (3 ships) fire team of AH-1G Cobras, which was to provide cover for the operation. My aircraft was equipped with a 20mm Cannon and two rocket pods, one 7 tube and one 14 tube plus the standard 40mm and 7.62 mini-gun in the turret. The team was inserted directly into the center of the camp in a lightening raid that had them on the ground in less than two minutes from the time we broke over the mountain and dropped into the valley so we acheived complete surprise. We set up an orbit directly over the camp to provide fire as needed. As the team fanned out I received a call from the team commander that requested we depart our overhead orbit because our cobras were making to much noise.

 

I elected to move about 2 miles up the valley and wait for further orders from the C&C or the ground force. As I proceeded up the valley low level I suddenly saw a very small clearing on side of the valley which contained several hundred round baskets which appeared to contain various food supplies, noticably numerous baskets containing eggs. In addition just at the edge of the clearing was a thatch hootch. I informed C&C and my wing men that I had a target and requested to engage. Permission was given and I climbed up out of the valley to set up a gun run. As I reached 1500 feet I found I could not locate the position. From altitude we could not see the clearing. After several orbits attempting to locate the exact position I decided to go back down low level and pin point the position. As I flew slowly up the valley I again found the clearing and made several slow passes directly over the site. Seeing no sign of actual enemy troops I elected to come to a hover and let my front seat work the area over with the 40mm and mini-gun.

I informed my wing men of my intention and they set up a protective cover overhead. My co-pilot was having a ball with the 40mm. Baskets were flying every which way and then he begin destroying the hootch. I was holding steady at about a 30 foot hover when I noticed some movement about 50 meters to my right. I caught sight of a single NVA soldier in his tan uniform step out from behind a tree and point his pistol directly at me. Before I could react he managed to empty his pistol and retreat back into the jungle. Within seconds the comforting sound to my turbine engine quit and the only sound was the thumping coming from the 40mm still hammering away at the hootch. I called my wingmen and informed them that we had taken fire and were going down. I made a very nice hovering autorotation to the edge of the clearing and within seconds we were out of the aircraft and making our way away from the clearing. It took C&C about 5 minutes to get to us and a successful extraction was made with no further enemy fire being received. Our little expedition to destroy a couple hundred dollars worth of NVA supplies cost the tax payers a fully loaded AH-1G and could have easily ended with us both becoming POW's ourselves. I was totally embarresed about loosing my aircraft to one dink with a pistol, however my commander praised us for making an impossible emergency landing at the edge of such a small clearing. He assumed that I was at altitude when hit and was not aware that I was screwing around in a place that I should have not been. Turned out the camp had been abandoned the morning of the raid about three hours before our arrival and my cobra was destroyed by my two wingmen who really enjoyed blowing up a loaded gunship. They said it made a great site when the fuel and rockets went up. To his day the only one that knew the actual circumstance of this adventure was me and my co-pilot, but after 37 years I suspect I won't get into to much trouble now. I managed to get myself shot down a total of 7 times during my two tours, but all the other times were legit so I don't feel so bad about them.

 

I hope I have not bored you all with this trivia, but every once in a while its good to find some humor in war.

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Cobrahistorian

As a fellow gunship driver, I've gotta say WOW! Cool story, and I'm definitely glad they'd abandoned that camp!

 

Stories from D/101st have been hard to come by. When I was writing my first book on the Cobra in Vietnam, it was incredibly difficult digging up any significant combat stories to include from D/101.

 

I'd love to hear more about your experiences, and if you've got any advice to pass along to a relatively new gun pilot (400hrs tt) I'm all ears!

 

Jon

Reaper 16

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As a fellow gunship driver, I've gotta say WOW! Cool story, and I'm definitely glad they'd abandoned that camp!

 

Stories from D/101st have been hard to come by. When I was writing my first book on the Cobra in Vietnam, it was incredibly difficult digging up any significant combat stories to include from D/101.

 

I'd love to hear more about your experiences, and if you've got any advice to pass along to a relatively new gun pilot (400hrs tt) I'm all ears!

 

Jon

Reaper 16

 

Jon,

Would be more than happy to share experiences with you. I think we have corresponded on a small scale a couple months ago. You are flying the Apache I believe. A wonderful (star ship) compared to the cobra. I flew UH-1C's in 68 and 69 and AH-1G's with the 101st and 82nd Avn Bn. Participated in Lam Son 719 and Lam Son 720, in addition to many many missions into Loas, North Vietnam and the A-Shau while supporting the SF launch sites at Phu Bai and Marble Mountain. Was Keith Briants wingman when he went down during Lam Son 719. They just found and returned his and his co-pilot's remains a couple years ago. Can't remember his co-pilots name, he was a brand new Lt and it was his first combat mission. Keith was our Operations Officer and was scheduled to go to Hawaii to meet his wife. He volunteered to fly the mission the day before he was to depart for R&R and made the supreme sacrifice. As a result of supporting the CCN units we managed to see a lot of action. We did very little escort duty and almost always when we launched it resulted in a fire fight. There is a book on the market by Philip Chinnery titled "Life on the Line" there are a couple stories about one of my 1968 fire fights and another while with the 101st, perhaps you have seen the book. At any rate as stated earlier would be happy to converse, only know one Apache pilot and he has long since retired as have I.

 

Sincerly, Maj (Ret) T. R. Morris

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  • 1 year later...
IMPERIAL QUEST

Major,

 

Thank you for posting this. Like I have told you many times, it would be a shame for these accounts to be lost to history. I feel very fortunate to be able to lend my ear to you during our frequent conversations. I know that I never tire of hearing your accounts. :thumbsup:

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  • 2 weeks later...
eaglerider
See what happens when you play around. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

Major Morris,

 

Thank you for taking the time to post your recollections, and thanks for all you did in support of the ground troops in 'Nam.

 

As one of those ground troops, I can assure you that the sound of approaching choppers was always a welcome sound.

 

It wasn't until well after the war that I read books like Chickenhawk and got a glimpse into the lives on the other side of those helicopters. You, and all the pilots flying in 'Nam have my deepest respect.

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