Page 8 - DFCS News Magazine Spring 2013

On January 28th 1966, the 155th AHC was working in support of Vietnamese troops in the Bong Son area. The weather was not good and the ceiling had lowered to just above the treetops after dark. A call came for a medevac for two Americans who were advisors to the Vietnamese ground forces. They had been seriously wounded and needed to be evacuated immediately if they had a chance to survive. Another Falcon gunship and I (UH-1B's) agreed to escort a medivac crew. The other gunship and I had been there
earlier and thought we might be able to lead someone in but it would be at a speed not much more
than creeping, flying with all lights on to see each other and using our landing lights to keep from
hitting trees (real stealth stuff). The medevac crew declined to try to get them out because the visibil-
ity and ceiling were too bad. One of our Stagecoach slicks (UH-1D) volunteered to follow us and give it a try.
As I recall, it was about 30 minutes of creeping and, nearly, crawling over the trees when we started taking fire. We figuredwe were close enough and told them to pop some smoke which they did. It came up just in front of us turning the low lying clouds pinkish and we started unloading on all four sides of their perimeter while the slick slipped in and grabbed the two guys and a couple of Vietnamesewounded to boot. As the slick came out, the Falcons stayed on his tail shooting whatever we could from the perimeter outward. Then we had to find our way home in the same slow and disconcerting way we got there.
The good news is that we got in, got out and got back OK (maybe a few holes here and there but none critical). At the time, we didn't think too much about it. Seemed like just one of those things you do in the heat of battle so to speak. I don't know what happened to the guys we got out but I hope they are doing well and living a long life. As for the crews, I wish I could recall all their names so they could get the credit they deserve and I assume they all got the same award but I was surprised with mine in Dec. of 1966 or Jan. 1967 while based in Germany. I never saw any of the guys after Vietnam. My crew chief was Robert Hohman and that is the only name I remember.
After I was presented the award, I gave the incident some thought and realized what we had risked to try to save two of our guys and won- dered (still wonder) if it was foolish or just one of those things you should do despite what the risk is. We risked 12 livesand three very expensive aircraft to save two lives (turned out to be more but we did not know that going in) on a mission which probably should never have had a chance to be successful. Well, we did and it was so, as the French say, "C'est la vie). Jim Askren, DFC Society Member
Spring 2013 Issue Page 8