By early 1967, the Bell UH1 Iroquois
was already the standard Army assault helicopter, and was used in nearly every
"in-country" mission. Better known by its nickname "Huey,"
the troop carriers were referred to as "slicks" and the gunships were
called "Hogs." It proved itself to be a sturdy, versatile aircraft
which was called on to carry out a wide variety of missions including search and
rescue, close air support, insertion and extraction, fire support, and resupply
to name a few. It usually carried a crew of four.
Because the war in Vietnam lacked a
defined front line, the enemy strategy made Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols (LRRP)
a needed tool to gather intelligence about communist activities throughout
Southeast Asia. The ground commanders who fought the day to day war readily
recognized the need for special reconnaissance units at the onset of the
fighting. During 1965 provisional LRRP units were formed with all assets they
could spare.
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.
Shortly after lunch on 8 June 1967,
1st Lt. David G. Myers, aircraft commander; Capt. Boyd L. "Bo"
Barclay, pilot; Cpl. Thomas "Tom" Lanham, crewchief; and LCpl. Charles
Alexander, door gunner; comprised the crew of the #2 Huey helicopter gunship,
call sign Oak Gate," in a flight of 2 that departed Khe Sanh on an early
afternoon mission to provide air support for a ground operation. A Marine
company was making a sweep through an area near Hill 881 and Hill 861 where
another company had been severely mauled by communist forces the day before.
Capt. Brackin, pilot; Robert C. Houston, co-pilot; an unidentified crewchief and
door gunner comprised the crew of the lead aircraft.
Due to weather conditions, the
gunships were the ground patrol's only air cover because the clouds were too low
for fixed wing aircraft to operate safely. The ground mission was to locate,
identify and report on enemy activity along a suspected infiltration route used
by the NVA as an extension of the Ho Chi Minh Trail through the sparsely
populated rugged jungle covered mountains approximately 7 miles east of the
South Vietnamese/Lao border, 10 miles northwest of Khe Sanh, 21 miles south of
the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and 34 miles west of Quang Tri City, Quang Tri
Province, South Vietnam.
Once over the target area, the gunships' mission commander, Capt.
Brackin, established radio contact with the
ground company commander. After popping a smoke grenade to identify the position
of his troops, the ground commander requested that they check out the tree line
north of his troops. Oak Gate lead initiated a machinegun pass on the target
area followed immediately by his wingman. After making their low pass over the
tree line, 1st Lt. Myers exclaimed, "I think I saw something in that tree
line! Let's make a gun run and I'll notify our section leader to follow us
down!"
On the second pass over the tree line,
the helicopter came under heavy anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) fire. A siren
began to scream in the cockpit and the red warning light pulsated. According to
Capt. Barclay, "It sounded as if the helicopter was coming apart and the
engine had been knocked out." The next burst of AAA fire blew through the
cockpit and knocked Bo Barclay's hand into his face, but as he looked, he saw no
hand there. There was only bone and blood where once his hand had been.
As he reached across his armored vest
to try to find the pressure point on his bicep above the bloody stump, he said,
"I'm hit!" Then he heard David Myers state, "I'm dead! I'm
dead!" Looking to his right, he saw his aircraft commander's arms dangling
at his side and his head slumped on his chest. David Myers had been mortally
wounded by a .51 caliber round to his chest. At the same time Tom Lantham
glanced forward in time to see the aircraft's windshield shatter and both pilots
hit. In that split second, Cpl. Lantham thought, "No one is flying this
helicopter!"
Capt. Barclay collected himself and
regained control of the crippled aircraft. He forced the collective down and
braced it in place with his left knee to keep it there in preparation to
auto-rotate to the ground. At the same time he guided the Huey toward a small
jungle clearing. Unfortunately, he was unable to execute a normal auto-ration
and the Huey went into the foliage instead of the clearing. As the helicopter
settled into the trees, it shuddered as the rotors sliced through the treetops
before hitting the ground in swirl of dirt and foliage. As it crashed and rolled
downhill several times, everything inside the helicopter was being thrown around
and out before it came to a skidding stop on its left side.
Meanwhile, Capt. Brackin's aircraft
made a 180-degree turn and watched 1st Lt. Myers' helicopter smoking and in
obvious distress. Lead followed the damaged Huey as it descended toward the
ground; then watched in horror as it crashed on the steep slope and rolled
downhill. Oak Gate Lead immediately established radio contact with the Forward
Air Controller (FAC) controlling air operations in this sector notifying him of
the emergency as he began laying down suppressive fire to protect the downed
aircrew. Lead also identified the AAA ground fire coming from a Quad-50 battery
that was concealed in the tree line's jungle growth. Capt. Brackin immediately
attacked the gun emplacement and destroyed it with rockets.
Once the Huey came to a halt, Bo
Barclay un-strapped himself with his functioning hand and crawled out of the
aircraft through the right door. He found both Tom Lantham and Charles Alexander
squatting on the ground in a daze of disbelief. Capt. Barclay shouted to them to
"get a tourniquet and put it on my arm." Immediately one of the men
jumped up to retrieve the tail rotor tie down and wrapped it securely around the
pilot's mangled arm.
Glancing at the wreckage, Bo Barclay
exclaimed, "We have to get him out!" then started to take two steps
forward when his leg broke and he fell to the ground in a heap. The crewman
closest to the down aircraft peered into the cockpit, saw David Myers still
strapped in his seat and shouted, "He's dead, Sir!" Then he quickly
added, "They're shooting at us!"
Bo Barclay grabbed his survival radio
and made a frantic radio call to the flight leader who was circling overhead.
His ears were ringing so loudly that he could not hear what was being said so he
handed the radio to one of the others with the order to tell them "my arm
is blown off, my leg is broken and our aircraft commander is dead. Tell them
that we need an H-46 and hoist to get us out!"
Capt. Brackin responded that search
and rescue (SAR) were on their way inbound to their location, that there were no
heavy lift helicopters available and the three survivors needed to move to the
top of the mountain their Huey rolled down for pickup. Tom Lantham and Charles
Alexander clutched Bo Barclay by his flight suit and began the arduous task of
pulling him up the side of the mountain. Because it was so steep, the crewmen
were on their hands and knees with the injured pilot helping by pushing off with
his good leg. Shortly after the exhausted men crested the top of the mountain,
they watched the H-34 rescue helicopter set down in the clearing near where they
lay hidden in the tall grass. The three survivors were evacuated to Khe Sanh for
immediate medical treatment.
Shortly after the loss, US military
intelligence learned the NVA had direct control of the downed helicopter within
five minutes of its crash. The enemy set an ambush around the Huey's wreckage
knowing that the Americans would attempt to recover the aircraft commander's
remains as soon as it was feasible to do so. Later when a Marine reaction
platoon was inserted into the crash site to recover 1st Lt. Myers' body, they
were driven back by the intense enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire. At
the time the recovery operation was terminated, David Myers was reported as
Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered.
While the fate of 1st Lt. David Myers
is not in doubt, he has a right to have his remains returned to his family,
friends and country. Likewise, there is no doubt that the Vietnamese could
return his remains any time they had the desire to do so. For other Americans
who remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, their fate could be quite
different.
Since the end of the Vietnam War, over
21,000 reports of American Prisoners, missing and otherwise unaccounted for have
been received by our government. Many of these reports document LIVE American
Prisoners of War remaining captive throughout Southeast Asia TODAY.
Military men in Vietnam were called
upon to fly and fight in many dangerous circumstances, and were prepared to be
wounded, killed or captured. It probably never occurred to them that they could
be abandoned by the country they so proudly served.
Incidental Information
