| The Incident
At 1505 hours on 8 November
1967, two Air Force HH3H helicopters (call signs "Jolly Green 26"
and "Jolly Green 29") were scrambled from the 37th Aerospace
Rescue and Recovery Squadron, DaNang Airbase, South Vietnam for
an emergency extraction of a 12-man Special Forces road-watch
reconnaissance team. The team had suffered heavy casualties while
operating deep in a denied area along the infamous Ho Chi Minh
Trail in Laos and was under intense and relentless attack by the
communists. This recovery effort would be recorded by the 37th
Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron as one of the largest and most
hazardous on record.
The Special Forces team members
were assigned to MACV-SOG. Military Assistance Command Vietnam -
Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG) was a joint service
unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified
operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces
channeled personnel into MACV-SOG through Special Operations
Augmentation (SOA) that provided their "cover" while under secret
orders to MACV-SOG. These teams performed highly classified, deep
penetration missions of strategic reconnaissance and interdiction
that were called, depending on the location and time frame,
"Shining Brass," "Salem House," "Daniel Boone" or "Prairie Fire"
missions
This area of Laos was known to
be a major artery of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. When North Vietnam
began to increase its military strength in South Vietnam, NVA and
Viet Cong troops again intruded on neutral Laos for sanctuary, as
the Viet Minh had done during the war with the French some years
before. This border road was used by the Communists to transport
weapons, supplies and troops from North Vietnam into South
Vietnam, and was frequently no more than a path cut through the
jungle covered mountains. US forces used all assets available to
them to stop this flow of men and supplies from moving south into
the war zone.
The two Air Force rescue
helicopters were advised by the on site Forward Air Controller
(FAC) to remain in the holding area while three Army UH1B
gunships softened the area with rockets and machine gun fire.
Meanwhile, an Air Force C130 gunship provided flare support for
the operation. During this time 2 helicopters - 1 American UH1B
and 1 ARVN H34 - were shot down by automatic weapons fire very
near the road watch team approximately 45 kilometers
east-southeast of Muang Nong and 5 kilometers southwest of
Achiang, Salavan Province, Laos.
At 0030 hours on 9 November,
Jolly Green 29 successfully extracted three indigenous personnel
before being severely damaged and driven off by heavy enemy
automatic weapons fire. It departed the area and made an
emergency landing at Khe Sanh, South Vietnam.
The crew of the second rescue
helicopter, Jolly Green 26, was comprised of Capt. Gerald O.
Young, aircraft commander, Captain Ralph Brower, co-pilot, SSgt.
Eugene Clay, flight engineer, and Sgt. Larry Maysey,
pararescueman.
As he was departing the area,
the pilot of the damaged SAR helicopter advised Capt. Young that
the endangered team was positioned on the side of a steep slope
which would require unusual airmanship on the part of Capt. Young
to effect pickup. He further advised that any additional rescue
attempts be abandoned because it was not possible to suppress the
concentrated fire from those weapons.
20 minutes later, and with full
knowledge of the danger involved and that the supporting
helicopter gunships were low on fuel and ordnance, Capt. Young
hovered under intense enemy fire until Sgt. George Kusick and
MSgt. Bruce Baxter, who were both wounded, were aboard. As he
maneuvered the aircraft for takeoff, the enemy appeared at
point-blank range and raked it with automatic weapons fire. The
Jolly Green Giant crashed inverted in flames. Capt. Young escaped
through a window of the burning aircraft. Disregarding his own
serious burns, Capt. Young aided one of the wounded men and
attempted to lead the hostile forces away from that man's
position.
The number of US and allied
personnel on the ground and under attack was now 12 men from the
Special Forces road-watch team, 4 US crewmen from the UH1B, 3
ARVN from the ARVN H34 and 4 US crewmen from the HH3H.
Between 0900 hours and 1700
hours on 9 November, 17 of the 23 embattled men were rescued.
Those 6 men still on the ground included 2 trail-watch team
members, 1 UH1B crewman and 3 HH3H crewmen. Later, when another
rescue attempt by air was planned, Capt. Young declined to bring
the aircraft in because he had observed hostile forces setting up
automatic weapons positions to entrap any rescue
aircraft.
By late afternoon a strike team
was landed some distance away to rescue the remaining Americans,
but had difficulty making contact with the survivors. When they
did link up, it was impossible to inspect the wreckage for
survivors or remains because of fading light.
On 10 November, over 17 hours
after the HH3H was shot down, the remaining survivors were
evacuated by rescue helicopter. Capt. Gerald O. Young, the pilot
of Jolly Green Giant 26, was awarded this nation's highest
decoration, The Congressional Medal of Honor, for his
extraordinary heroism both in the air and on the ground during
this mission.
Later the wreckage of the Jolly
Green Giant was searched. Three charred remains were found, two
of them had identification tags which identified them as members
of the aircrew. The third set of remains had no tags, but was
identified as Sgt. Kusick, the reconnaissance team radio
operator, as the long antenna from his PRC-25 radio were found on
his body. Approximately 34 meters downhill from the wreckage,
another set of remains was found. It was readily identified as
MSgt. Baxter by his facial features. Even though the area was
well searched, no trace of the third crewman was found, either
alive or dead.
The remains found in the
helicopter were removed from the aircraft and placed with MSgt.
Baxter's remains so they could be hoisted as one lift into a
hovering helicopter. The identification tags of the crewmembers
were placed with the remains. Weather conditions on 9 November
were clear with 7 miles visibility and light to variable winds.
By 10 November there was a 1000-foot overcast of clouds with only
3 miles of visibility and light rain. During the next 2 days,
weather conditions and enemy action would not permit helicopters
to extract the remains of the dead. Ultimately the strike team
was forced to leave the remains where they had been placed, and
depart the crash site area. On 13 November 1967, George Kusick,
Bruce Baxter; Ralph Brower; Eugene Clay and Larry Maysey were all
declared Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered.
For every insertion like this
one that was detected and stopped, dozens of others safely
slipped past NVA lines to strike a wide range of targets and
collect vital information. The number of MACV-SOG missions
conducted with Special Forces reconnaissance teams into Laos and
Cambodia was 452 in 1969. It was the most sustained American
campaign of raiding, sabotage and intelligence-gathering waged on
foreign soil in US military history. MACV-SOG's teams earned a
global reputation as one of the most combat effective
deep-penetration forces ever raised.
|
