CHAPTER 57 "THE MUDDMEN"

The Way Bill Hanegmon's Remembers It.

Recorded Tony Spletstoser

"D" Trp. 3/5^th Air Cav Date: 3-30-71

Aircraft: OH-6A s/n 67-16058 Vinh Long, RVN

Pilot: Capt. Rick Waite APO 96352 SF

Observer: Spc5 Bill Hanegmon

AO: Ben Tre Island

The Mekong Delta

Rick and I were flying Lead Scout on an S&D mission on Ben Tre Island just across one of the Mekong River branches, Song Bay something or another. The AO was about five klicks west of Ben Tre City. The word was that there was a Base camp there for NVA regulars. The word was right on. We came across many camouflaged hootchs and bunkers, plus a lot of fresh signs of activity. I said Rick; "The window openings were all shut. The doors were all shut. The bunker slits all covered with Nipha palm fronds. I knew that there were people in there. I asked Rick, "How about if I put a few rounds from my M-60 into them?" Rick says, "Negative." I said how about some Willie Pete on one of them?" Rick says, "Negative." Then how about a grenade?" Negative." How about maybe dropping a Trip Flare (They'll make a hooch roof burn good, right on through, not much furniture or carpeting in them, you know.) "Negative." I thought, "Damned Rick, we might as well go home." But I'm an opportunist, so I said Rick, "How about I drop a few CS Smokes on them?"

Rick said, "OK." As we made the circuit again, I threw CS grenades into about three of the hootchs. Smoke came boiling out. Then we pulled off to let the Cobras come in.

And that's when it happened. I remember I was sitting there and I heard this explosion that was kind of up and behind me. I looked up through the overhead greenhouse in time to see the rotor blades and head leave the helicopter. It went spiraling off like one those toys that kids play with. It reminded me of the breakfast food cereal ad with the rabbit in it with the ears flipping around. The rotor fell into the rice paddy still spinning. We were only at about 25 feet up and were definitely going down. The next thing that I remember is that all the Prexie glass shattered like that tempered glass in auto windows. After that I'm not sure what happened. I remember that I had my M-60 in my hands and was siting in the aircraft, the next thing I knew I was in the rice paddy with no M-60 and no aircraft. I still had the Monkey strap on but it wasn't tied to anything. Rick was next to me still in his seat. We were trying to help each other up and fighting our dazed tendencies. We couldn't hear anything. The explosion had dampened our hearing for the moment. We tried yelling but it didn't do any good.

Our bells had really been rung. When we first started getting our hearing back, our voices sounded like we were talking in a tunnel. We are covered all over with that rice paddy mud. Both of us looked like just another pile of it.

Rick and I were lying there covered with mud and looking at each other wondering about the meaning of life. As our hearing began to come back, I heard this little phisst-phisst sound in the water. We looked around and we could see little geysers of water kicking up all around us. Could it be that there were some Bad Guys shooting at us? We started looking around and wondered where the hell our Trail was.

Then we heard this faint whirring sound and looked up to see the Trail Loach moving toward us. Rick and I were trying to stand up and run toward the hovering Scout. We wanted to run, but it was hard to stand or even walk in that rice paddy muck. Rick would fall down, I'd help him up, then I'd fall down and he'd help me up. It would have been laughable if we hadn't been scared schiittless. Our friends in the Loach didn't seem to want to move any closer. They were at about a ten-foot hover. Rick and I were doing our best to get over to them. Finally, here they come. Pilot Bill Werich and "Oscar" Thomas LaCrosse. We made to the Loach. I couldn't get Werich to look at me. I think that his mind was concentrating on the gun flashes coming out of the tree line. He was hovering too high for us. I looked him in the eye and yelled, damnit, get down! Then he put the skids in the water and I began trying to push him into the back. I yelled help me! Rick replied, "I can't.' He was still wearing his 45 pistol and belt. When we were flying he kept the .45 slung over his crotch to protect the "Family Jewles." It was still there and the .45 in the holster was hooking on the edge of the rear deck. I said, "It's your damned 45." He pulled it out, I pushed and he flopped in on the deck, next it was my turn.

As it worked out the C&C thought that we needed really serious medical attention and ordered the Trail to fly over to secure area out of the neighborhood VC's rifle range, were we could be transferred to the C&C aircraft. From there Rick and I were taken to Bien Thuy for a med. check out. Rick was just shaken up and muddy, but as he laid on the table in the hospital he said, "If I every get out of this, I'm never going to drive over the speed limit as long as I live. (Back home he has a 68 Stingray and had loved to stretch it out, and now he was swearing no more.) I had a small hole in my cheek and a grove in my tongue. We were sure muddy and exhausted. And we didn't I repeat, didn't, go back to the staging area to get another Loach. We went back to Vinh Long, stood under the shower, went to the club and got a cold Bud.

At the time we had no idea what had caused the explosion. At first we thought that we had been by a enemy RPG. Turned out that it was unfriendly—friendly fire.

Rick Waite and Bill Hanegmom, after action photo.

Nothing like a cold "Bud" after a bad day at the Office.

Rick Waite, Bill Hanegmon, and Bill King Today.

Odds and Ends from side "B" of the interview tapes concerning the MUDDMEN and other TINS.

Hanegmon says, “After we get on the Trail Loach, Rick's laying back there and he says weakly, "Hangmen." I say "What." Rick says. "If we make it through this I'm never going to break the speed limit again the rest of my life." I think, "what's he talking about, this f**ker has got his bell twisted, does he think that he's been in a car wreck? It's like he's promising GOD to be good the rest of his life if HE gets him out of this." But I think that all of us have done that at one time or another. Rick is always talking about Corvette Stingray. He tells me about how he has the American Flag painted on the hood, but now he says, "That SOB is never going over the speed limit for the rest of my life."

Then when we arrived at the hospital they looked at us like we were ghosts or something. The Doc's and Medic's were checking us out. They must have heard something about our crash. They were saying, "What! These guys were in a helicopter that disintegrated and then here they come walking in like this. Because they just couldn't believe that we were not hurt any more than we were. Rick and I did feel kind of beat up.

As for getting another aircraft and returning to the AO, that part of the story is not true, we absolutely did not go back up that day. I don't think that they would have trusted us anyway.

Tony says, "I'll be damned. Paul Zaneski said that you guys went back to the staging area, climbed into another Loach and went back to the AO."

Hangman; Oh hell no, we went back to our company area is what we did. We had a little EM Club there and we grabbed a couple of cold ones and had our picture taken. As you can see by the photo, we were pretty cleaned up by that time.

The "Muddmen Bird" #058 was a great aircraft, but there was nothing left to rebuild or even recover.

Rick and I loafed around a couple of days, and then the CO figured that if we didn't get back up then, that maybe we never would. So we did, and we got back in the game.

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