Hughes OH-6A s/n
66-17792
28 Dec. 1970
Pilot: Cpt. Rick Waite callsign Warwagon
19
Vinh Long, RVN
CE/Gunner: Spc.5 Bill
Hanegmon
APO 96352 SF
"RICK'S
FOOT"
Rick Waite and his
Super Observer/ Gunner,
Bill Hanegmom Callsign(792
Oscar)
Recorded by Tony Spletstoser
Let's see now, this is how it all began. A S&D [Search and Destroy]
mission south in the Plain of Reeds. I remember that it was the 28th of
December, 1970. Why do I remember that day and date? That’s
easy. Any time someone has a bad day, that date kind of sticks in your
mind, the easy days are the ones you forget.
"TINS."
We were working out of the staging field at Moc Hoa,
up near the Cambodian border. Most of the day had been rather
uneventful!
At about 1600 we were nearing the southern edge of the Plain of Reeds,
about 10 klicks from junction of canals that we called the "Wagon
wheel," when we began to see lots of fresh
activity.
There were fresh trails through the reeds in the
water, sampans parked up under some brush, and some bunkers and hooch's
under the taller shrubs and trees. Hanegmon yelled out "break
left, break left, I've got a man running." I immediately broke
left as Hanegmon began to fire his M-60 at the highly mobile
target. Suddenly there was a loud explosion in a tree outside my
door on the right side and everything went black. I could hear
Hanegmon yelling, "I've got the aircraft, I've got the aircraft."
I was temporarily screwed up and finally realized that my flight helmet
was on 90 degrees to the direction it was supposed to be. I had jerked
my head away from the explosion so fast, that my head had turned inside
the helmet causing me to be looking into
the Headset! As I straightened the helmet I could hear Hanegmon
talking to the C&C ship telling them that I was hit and that he was
flying the aircraft.
Blood was flying all over the place in our cockpit.
It seemed to be coming from my face or head. I immediately started
putting my finger all over my face trying to find a hole and having
very little luck.
In the meantime I could hear the C&C ship vectoring
Hanegmon to a RFPF compound about three clicks from where we had been
shot up. I leaned back in the seat, blood still coming from
someplace on my face. I'd given up trying to find the hole and
had planned
on just waiting till we got on the ground.
Bill stayed low-level and was lining up to set the
Loach down on a road between two rice paddies, just to the side of the
RFPF compound. For some reason he chose to land perpendicular to the
Road.
With 20-20 hind-sight this may seem to some as not the
most prudent choice, perhaps lining up with the road would have been
better. However, this appeared to be the quickest way down and had the
engine not quit, everything would have worked out fine.
We were about 30 ft. out from the selected touch down on a
short final when I heard the engine just suddenly stop. We were too low
to do a standard autorotation landing and too high and too slow to do a
low level autorotation.
In reality, all of this was a moot point, since I had
neither explained what the dynamics of the aircraft were during
autorotation to Hanegmom or had ever guided him through such a
landing. You might say that I neglected his
education. All things consid-ered, up until the time that the
engine failed, Hanegmom and I figured that we had it made. He had
made many similar landings while I was teaching him to fly.
Once the engine quit, we were committed. As I put my hands
and feet on the controls with Hanegmon, I found that my pedals on my
side were completely shot away. Thankfully Hanegmon managed to
keep the tail behind us. Which is not a easy task at low speed without
power. We pulled in all the pitch we had, but it was not
enough! We did manage to land on the road but, because we had
nothing to slow down our forward airspeed, (no rotor RPM to flair to a
hover) the aircraft's landing skids squatted and then skidded
right off the road into the rice paddy on its nose. The main rotor
blades had strikes on the rice paddy water and then a blade over flexed
and severed the tail boom.
The water in the paddy was about four or five feet deep.
Water filled the cockpit as the aircraft sank. We got out of our
harnesses, helmets and chicken-plate then swam back to the road. Once
there, I tried to stand up, but then I felt the pain and went right
back down again. One of our slick crew Chiefs loaded me up on his back
and carried me over to his Huey, where they began to check me
out. Everyone was looking for a hole in my head because of all
the blood on my face and helmet. Then finally I noticed a nice neat
hole through my boot. I had been shot in the foot right between
the toe bones, that's why it hurt! They took me to a field
hospital at Binh Thuy "Navy," where they patched me up. I was back
flying again in three weeks.
Pilot Capt. Rick Waite and his "Oscar" Spc5 Bill Hanegmon.
Our Loach had taken 13 hits from small arms fire. There
had been a hit in the oil cooler which I believe had caused the engine
to overheat and quit. The trail aircraft confirmed that there had
been an explosion outside my door just before a hail of tracers
came up at us. We figured out that it must have been one of those
VC homebrewed bamboo bladed anti-helicopter claymoores that Charlie
makes and they had set in the tree. My rotor downwash had set it
off. Frags from them tend to cone-up. Somehow the
frags missed the Loach and my rotor disk?
All that blood in the cockpit was caused when I jerked my
head around: the edge of the helmet hit my nose and gave me a serious
nose bleed. And with the doors off the loach, the blood escaping from
my nose was being whipped about the cockpit by the
wind. Our Loach was hurt bad enough that
it got to go home, but we didn't. At that time, if there was one
thing in my life that I could be happy about, it was the fact that I
had taken the time to teach Hanegmon how to fly. To make that
kind of recovery at
low-level when your pilot
was incapacitated. Unbelievable! Bill clearly saved both
our butts that day.
I doubt there were many like Hanegmon. He
seemed to be able to do it all. He had it all together then and
he's still got it together now. He is a Detective with the St Louis
County Sher-iff's Department in Hibbing, Minnesota.
Oh, by the way, That was the first day I ever smoked a
Cigarette! The last day I smoked was October the 22nd 1993 when I
had my heart attack. Nuff said. Thanks Tony, for keeping the
memories alive.
Rick Waite, AEROSCOUT!
Warwagon 19/16
Epilogue...29 years later. Jan. 2000
Rick Wrote:
My weekend started off great and just got better as it
went. I met with Bill Kelbaugh in Jacksonville for a late
breakfast. Great guy, great conversation. We
had meant once before, just briefly, but have to say he's far more a
gentleman then I will ever be. We exchanged a few stories and then said
our good-byes. At the time I was sort of hurt that none of the other
“D” troopers in Florida were able to meet with me. But then I found out
that the Battle of Florida was on, Jax and Miami, even if it was sort
of a lopsided game.
From there I went on to Gainesville, Florida and had lunch
with Don Callison and his better half, Cindy. Don and I served
together for the entire year in Vietnam. Both of us flew Scouts
with the War Wag-ons. Don and his wife could not stay until the meeting
with my old Bird as they had prior commitments (each
other).
We said our good-byes and then they went on their
way and I headed to the Airport. I had to wait a short time (till
the game ended) and then two of Gainesville PD's finest (no sarcasm
here at all) showed up and took me into their office. Mr. Dale
Witt and John Rouse, took me in their office and gave me the nickel
tour of the office area. I then gave them some War Wagon t-shirts and a
Video. We then proceeded to the hanger where I laid eyes on
her for the first time in 29 years and 18 days. My OH-6A, s/n
66-17792. In the dim lit hanger she looked almost like a ghost,
as I drew nearer I began to feel a rush of adrena-line. The patches on
the engine doors and her belly indicat-ed where we both had suffered
from wounds 29 years ago. She was beautiful. I
touched her and just stared at her, glad to see that she too had
survived all these years. She had obviously aged much better then
I. I had worn my Sow Belly Stetson and Cav Scarf in hopes that
she would recognize me. I think she did. I displayed photos
of her in flight over SEA and after our shootdown to the two
officers. They were listening to every word I said.
I then got my camera and took a few pictures of her. They
opened the hanger doors and rolled her out into the sunlight.
This little airplane had taken care of me and Bill Hanegmon and it
seemed as though she were really alive.
Then it happened! One of the guys handed me a
headset and asked, "Are you ready"?
I was stunned. I was going to get to go for a ride
in her. They said they were not taking me for a ride but I would
be taking them for a ride. I couldn't believe it. We climbed in, they
cranked her, and being very safety conscious I suggested he lift her
off till I could get control of my-self. Five miles from the Airport
and 500 feet, John said "Go ahead and take her." For the
next two hours she was mine. He had picked out a couple of places we
could low level and do some landings and takeoffs from. When he
told me I could take her low-level. We (792) immediately dove for
the trees. I skimmed the trees again, chased some birds, chased a
train, and did some practice grenade runs on a hunter's deerstand. Then
flew along the edge of a lake and then practiced some landings and
takeoffs from a small field back in the woods. We talked while I
flew. It all came back so quickly. I at one time braced my
knee against the collective and pointed out some people in the woods
below us, reminiscent of the old days. I was that 20 year old Scout
pilot again. Tears were running down my cheeks.
I got tickled when he asked me if I knew how to turn
right? Again the old days had taken over and as we had done
in Vietnam (all left hand orbits) I was unconsciously doing it
again. ( left handed orbits were used because my "Oscar"/gunner
was seated on the left side.) It was great, looking through the
overhead canopy to hunt a target. The terrain, too. It looked a
lot like the U-Minh Forrest. 792 and her new crew were
giving me something I never thought would ever happen again.
All too soon it was time to head back to Gainesville. At
he Airport he let me fly the pattern a few times and then we went back
to their hanger. I was speechless, I couldn't seem to properly express
my gratitude. I left in such a tizzy, I forgot to get the photos
they were going to give me. Truly an experi-ence I will never
forget.
I left aviation 28 years ago...Some of you have had
the joy of continuing in aviation. This may all sound like Bee Ess, but
to me this day was very spiritual. The last flight I
had in 792 in Vietnam ended abruptly and resulted in me being shot in
the foot and 792 was DEROS'ing to CONUS early. She had been
assigned to me and had take several hits before getting the hit in the
oil cooler.. My doorgunner wound up flying her to a small Rough n'Puff
compound before the engine gave out and he was forced to attempt a 50
foot autorotation. He did a hell of a job.
I was too stupid to recommend him for a DFC. He
later saved another pilot's life by landing the Loach after he too had
been shot. Again he failed to get an award.... but
then again we at "D" Troop were sort of like the black sheep of the
family.
Hope some of you enjoyed reading this. I had a long
time in my car alone to go over what had happened and thought a lot
about those who never got to come home and enjoy the life I have. Misty
eyes were a real problem.
OH-6A s/n 66-17792 as it is today, Gainesville, Fla. PD.
Callison, Bottroff, Cogburn
Rick Waite
AEROSCOUT
Warwagon 19/16
D Troop 3/5th Air Cav.
Vinh Long, RVN 1970-71
