| The Incident
On 1 May 1967, Capt. John
Tatum, pilot; Lt. Bob Rogers, co-pilot; LCpl. Terry Blosser,
crewchief; and SSgt. Stan L. Corfield, door gunner; comprised the
crew of a CH46A Sea Knight helicopter, call sign "Buffalo City
2-2," that was the #2 aircraft in a flight of 2. The helicopter,
whose crew was from HMM-165, MAG-36, 1st Marine Air Wing; was
transporting sick and wounded Marines from the 1st Hospital
Company, Chu Lai, Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam to the US
Navy's hospital ship, the USS Sanctuary, stationed in the South
China Sea.
The following were Marines were
being transported aboard Buffalo City 2-2 to the hospital ship
for medical treatment:
Sgt. John H. Bailey, Company M,
5th Marines, 1st Marine Division
Cpl. Roger C. Gaughan, 3rd Marine Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st
Marine Division
PFC Hilario H. Guajardo, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine
Division
LCpl. Carl A. Smith, Company B, 1st Support Battalion, 1st Marine
Division
PFC Duwayne Soulier, Headquarters Company, 7th Command Battalion,
1st Marine Division
The two aircrews of Buffalo
City flight began their day at approximately 0500 hours to
conduct a Sparrow Hawk mission around the DaNang area. This
overall mission included inserting troops, re-supplying others,
providing air support for American and Allied troops under fire,
and picking up other troops who needed medical
evacuation.
It was well after dark when the
aircrews prepared to conclude their day's operations. They were
flying south along the coastline destined for their base located
at Ky Ha when the pilot of the lead aircraft received a radio
call from Chu Lai Med, the command center for the hospital. The
controller asked if Buffalo City flight would accept a mission to
transport some of the sick and wounded from the hospital to the
USS Sanctuary? Capt. Nesmith accepted the mission and asked for
the number of patients to be transported. He was informed there
was a total of 24 patients.
After confirming that there
were 13 ambulatory and 11 litter cases, Capt. Nesmith, the pilot
of the lead aircraft, radioed Capt. Tatum to inform him that he
would transport those who were ambulatory, the lead Sea Knight
would transport the litter cases. The ambulatory patients were
described as having parasitic diseases. The two helicopters
landed on the hospital's helipad, the wounded were loaded aboard
and they departed for the USS Sanctuary with Buffalo City 2-1 in
the lead and Buffalo City 2-2 in trail.
At approximately 2300 hours,
the flight began its approach to the USS Sanctuary, which was
approximately 12 miles east-northeast of Chu Lai and 57 miles
southeast of DaNang. In order to lighten their load and reduce
the risk of a fire, as well as in accordance with standard
operating procedure, the flight leader jettisoned his extra fuel
before landing on the ship's helipad.
Meanwhile, Buffalo City 2-2
entered a hard right turn circle at 50 knots and approximately
120 feet above the USS Sanctuary while the wounded were removed
from the lead aircraft. The ship's duty officer asked the pilot
if they would transport another load of troops who were ready to
return to duty back to the 1st Hospital Company? Again Capt.
Nesmith complied with the request, loaded the 14 passengers
aboard his aircraft and took off. As Buffalo City 2-1 cleared the
landing pad, Capt. Tatum told 1st Lt. Rogers to initiate the
procedure to jettison their extra fuel while continuing to fly in
a hard right turn at an altitude of 120 feet. The co-pilot turned
on both of the fuel jettison switches, however, only fuel from
the left tank was dumped. As Capt. Tatum turned on final approach
to the ship's helipad a minute and a half later, he told 1st Lt.
Rogers to shut off the left switch. Unfortunately, 1st Lt. Rogers
did not hear him give that order.
As Buffalo City 2-2 continued
to circle the USS Sanctuary, Capt. Tatum felt the aircraft sink a
little and get sluggish. He glanced at the cockpit gages and saw
that the #1 engine had quit. He immediately radioed Capt. Nesmith
stating "I've lost an engine." 5 to 10 seconds later, and before
they were able to recover the #1 engine, Capt. Tatum reported
they lost the #2 engine and were auto-rotating down. Not
realizing they were still dumping fuel at an alarming rate, he
told 1st Lt. Rogers to jettison more fuel. Capt. Tatum radioed,
"I'm going in," before he made a seemingly very soft landing on
the surface of the water in a nose-high attitude with no forward
speed.
Also at the same time the
in-flight emergency was declared, LCpl. Blosser, the crewchief of
the #2 aircraft, began walking backward to the rear of the
aircraft yelling instructions over the noise of the rotor blades
to the passengers. He reinforced the need for each man to remain
inside the helicopter until the rotor blades stopped moving, no
matter what happened. He restated the instructions as he returned
to his own duty position located at the left door. Terry Blosser
anticipated the helicopter would settle on the surface of the
water and remain afloat for a little while giving the aircrew
ample time to evacuate their passengers in an orderly fashion.
However, even though the weather was good, there were 8 to
10-foot swells that tipped the Sea Knight on its right side
within 2 to 3 seconds causing it to fill with water and sink
within 30 seconds. When the aircraft rolled on its right side, it
positioned the door gunner's open door straight down under
water.
The crew chief went out his
door and swam away from the crippled helicopter underwater as far
as he could. When he surfaced several feet away, he looked back
at the helicopter. All he saw of the aircraft was one wheel
remaining on the surface of the water and men hanging onto it. He
yelled to them to get away from it because when the aircraft went
down, they would be dragged down by the undertow caused by the
sinking helicopter. Unfortunately, before he could swim back to
help the others, most of them disappeared below the
surface.
The pilot, Capt. Tatum, was the
last man to get out of the Sea Knight. With the aircraft upside
down, he could not open his escape hatch. He climbed into the
main cabin through the space between the pilot and co-pilot's
seats, then made his way back to the right side doorway, which
was the door gunner's duty position. Capt. Tatum went to the rear
of the helicopter, then back forward to where there was an air
pocket. As the helicopter rapidly filled with water, he went from
one end of the helicopter to the other to verify that the rest of
his crew and all the passengers were out of it. Finally he took
another breath of air from the rapidly diminishing air pocket and
exited through the left side doorway as the Sea Knight began to
sink deeper into the South China Sea, then swam roughly 20 feet
to the surface. When he surfaced, Capt. Tatum heard cries of
"help me, I can't swim."
At the same time Capt. Tatum
declared an emergency, Capt. Nesmith returned to the USS
Sanctuary to off-load his passengers in preparation for the
search and rescue (SAR) operation. Within minutes Buffalo City
2-1 was back in the air to search for Buffalo City 2-2. Capt.
Nesmith and his crew used the aircraft's searchlight to scan the
water for survivors, and when they were found, Capt. Nesmith
hovered close by while his crew threw life vests and wands to the
men to help them stay afloat in the water. At the same time the
emergency was declared, small boats were launched from the
hospital ship. Of the 17 men aboard the downed helicopter, SAR
personnel were able to locate and rescue 11 of them including
John Tatum, Bob Rogers and Terry Blosser. The small boat crews
picked up 10 men and Buffalo City 2-1's aircrew hoisted 1 out of
the water.
After rescue, the survivors
were transported to the USS Sanctuary where they spent the night.
However, while the search personnel were able to locate and
recover 11 men, they were unable to find any trace of Sgt.
Bailey, SSgt. Corfield, Cpl. Gaughan, PFC Guajardo, LCpl. Smith
and PFC Soulier in the darkness and rolling swells. The next day
SAR efforts continued, but again found no sign of the missing
men. At the time the formal search operation was terminated, John
Bailey, Stan Corfield, Roger Gaughan, Hilario Guajardo, Carl
Smith and Duwayne Soulier were listed Killed in Action/Body Not
Recovered.
Recently John Tatum was asked
about the loss of his aircraft and the subsequent rescue. He
stated, "The ship's rescue boats did an outstanding job of
getting into the area quickly and throwing life vests in the
general area of all visible survivors. Then they began throwing
lifelines. Without the rescue boats and Capt. Nesmith's
searchlight, there would have been no survivors." Under the
circumstances, it is highly unlikely the remains of the men
killed in this tragic loss at sea can ever be found. While each
man has a right to have his remains returned to his family,
friends and country if at all humanly possible, that would
probably never happen in this case. Above all else, each man has
the right not to be forgotten by the nation for which he gave his
life.
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