Army Pilot Reunites with Navy Pilot who rescued him in Vietnam!
By Rick Roll
As a US Army 1st Lt. I flew an OH-23G for John Paul Vann, the protagonist of Neil Sheehan’s “A Bright Shining Lie,” for the last 4 mos. of my tour; 1/67-12/67.
Prior to flying for Vann I had flown Huey gunships & Raven scouts for “D” Troop 3/5th Cav.
In Oct. of 67 Vann sent me on a highly classified mission to Can Tho, deep in the Mekong river delta, to pick-up a South Vietnamese Army Col. & fly him to Saigon.
En route to Saigon, right after crossing the Song River and less than a minute after I tuned to the Dong Tam firebase frequency, the engine of my Raven failed catastrophically.
I made a successful “0” groundspeed autorotation to the center of a rice paddy that was submerged under 1’ of H2O. I ended up, sitting dry as a bone, in the middle of the paddy. All I had for personal protection were a half
dozen HE grenades and a 9mm Swedish K submachine gun. During the very rapid autorotative descent I recall making a 180 degree turn & checking my airspeed for 60mph but I remember nothing about the flare & pitch pull; a
credit to my flight school training I had broadcast multiple “May Days” on the way down & in less than 10 minutes, a solo US Navy “Sea Wolf” UH-1B “gunship” shot an approach to our right-hand side to pick us up.
After I pulled my radios, I don’t think my boots got wet as I raced across the rice stalks.
The Sea Wolf flew us back to Dong Tam, a US Army Col. Grabbed my RVN Col., & I hitched a ride on an Army Caribou back to my base at Bear Cat.
Ever since that day I have had a deep need to find and thank that anonymous pilot & his crew. In 1999, better late than never, I posted a message on the “Sea Wolf Association’s” website in an attempt to locate my savior.
Much to my great surprise and pleasure, on 4/20/07 I received a letter from Mike Stock, Sea Wolf 62, informing me that he was the pilot who had picked me up on 10/17/67. I called him immediately and talked to his wife,
Barbara, and learned that he was on a corporate flying trip and would return on 4/22. I then asked her what was Mike’s favorite “adult” beverage and she told me he enjoyed Chardonnay wine. After hanging up with Barbara I
arranged to have a twelve bottle case of Kendall Jackson’s finest “Vintage Reserve” Chardonnay FedExed to the Stock residence in Traverse City, MI.
I called Mike on the 22nd and, as you might imagine, we had a great conversation. He’s now retired from the Navy and, after flying multiple aircraft, helos & fixed-wing, literally all over the world, has settled in MI.
He flies DeHavilland Beavers on floats in Alaska during the summers; a real “pilot’s pilot” to be sure!
During this 1st conversation I learned, for the very first time, the details of Mike’s side of this event. He was alone in his Navy UH-1B at Dong Tam (approx. 10 miles East of my location) hovering a short distance to refuel,
when he heard my radio transmission, and knowing that I was going down in “very nasty Viet Cong territory,” “pulled pitch and went searching for me; just himself & his crew chief; his 7.62mm “mini-guns” were still wrapped
in their protective canvas coverings. He worried en route that the covers might fly off and hit his main or tail rotors but he knew he had to get to me and my passenger very quickly. He saw my flare, I had forgotten I had even
fired one, and made the pick-up. On his way in, he told me he saw multiple armed VC moving towards my location along the paddy dikes; some within 100 meters of my position. After dropping us off at Dong Tam, he
manned his helo with the rest of his crew, teamed up with two Army gunships, and headed back to the paddy to fend off the VC until an extraction team was dropped in to secure the area and pick-up my chopper. While the
extraction crew was doing its work it was mortared by the VC but neither the extraction team nor the Army platoon securing the area were hit.
Hearing this narrative for the 1st time, 40 years later, made my skin crawl. No other aircraft had responded to my “May Day” so if Mike not been on frequency at that time, I probably would not be alive to tell this story today;
I owe him my life. Fittingly, Mike’s wife Barbara had told me that he had been awarded the Silver Star for his actions in rescuing me. I wish I had pinned it on his chest!
To bring this story full circle, Mike & Barbara visited us in Wyoming, DE in April of 2008. Shaking his hand for the 2nd time, the 1st was through his cockpit window in 1967, was a very special moment for me and my family.
Before the Stocks arrived, my eldest son Adam asked me; “—what do I say to a person who, were it not for his heroism, I would not even exist?” My wife Pat & I threw a big reunion barbecue for the Stocks and after the tables
were cleared, Mike presented me with his framed “Seawolf Drinking Flag” that he has signed; “We share a bond that few will ever know!” Mike had carried this flag with him everywhere since he left Vietnam in 1968.
Mike and I correspond regularly and we plan to visit the Stocks in MI next spring. As a side note, the Stock’s youngest child, Julie, is a US Army Captain and just got back from her second tour in Iraq.
H.H. (Rick) Roll
Wyoming, DE
Stories and Remembrance
Light Horse Home