South Viet Nam: Associated with Combat

The flight of 21 U.S. Marine helicopters swarmed like giant, olive-green dragonflies over the fog-cloaked Annamese mountains in the northern part of South Viet Nam. Most of the HUS-i choppers carried Vietnamese troops headed for battle with the Communists, but in the last one were two Navy medics and six marines. Suddenly, the copter plummeted into a jungle mountainside amidst 100-ft.-tall trees.

A Vietnamese Ranger company landed in the nearest clearing, but three hours later they were only halfway to the crash. First man on the scene was another Navy medic, who shinnied down a rope from a helicopter hovering over the wreckage. Three men were beyond help; four of the five survivors died in their litters as they were slowly and stealthily carried through the Red-infested territory to the hospital in Nhatrang. Only the pilot lived to tell the story, and he could not tell much. Apparently there had been no enemy gunfire; the chopper had entered a cloud bank at 1,800 ft., and the next thing he remembered, he was lying on the ground.

The crash, officially listed as an accident, brought the toll of U.S. war dead in South Viet Nam since last December to 27. Of them, 14 were killed in accidents “associated” with combat, 13 in action.