March, 1970

Pilots: Crusader 30, CW2 Samuel P. Munn (Section Lead)
Front Seater, unknown
Crusader 33, WO1 "Nasty Jack" Dalton (Wing)
Front Seater, Captain "unknown"
Crusader 34, CW2 Chuck Nole (2nd Team Lead)
Front Seater, WO1 Jim Burch
Crusader 32, Duane Schmutz ??, WO1 Bob Seagreen (Wing)
Front Seater, unknown
 

We had finally completed the day's operations in an area known as the "Tram". The "Tram" is an extensive area of "elephant grass" in Chau Doc Province that generally runs from along the Cambodian border southeast towards the U Minh forest.

The Longknifes (slicks) departed from the staging area as soon as we were released. Myself, my wing, and two Warwagons (scouts) remained at our staging area near Chau Doc until CW2 Nole and his wing, along with two Warwagons, returned from the AO. The two Warwagons refueled quickly and all four Warwagons headed back. Because there was a shortage of rockets at Vinh Long, we generally tried to rearm at a staging site before returning to Vinh Long. CW2 Nole and WO1 Seagreen had expended almost all of their rockets so, between the refueling and rearming, it took some time before we were ready to depart. When we finally took off it was very dark.

The early Cobras were equipped with attitude indicators that were not up to the maneuvering and other gyrations that a Cobra was capable of doing. As a consequence many, if not most, failed. Of the four Cobras that night, three were "circle red-x" for "day VFR only" because of inoperative attitude indicators. The only Cobra with an operable attitude indicator was the one flown by my wing, WO1 "Nasty Jack" Dalton.

I was in the lead with WO1 Dalton, CW2 Nole, and WO1 Seagreen in that order following in trail. Just after departure we ran into a very low layer of smoke. The Vietnamese farmers in the area were in the process of burning off their fields prior to flooding and replanting. The smoke was cooling in the night air and had settled such that at about 300 feet contact with the ground would be lost. I descended to about 200 feet trying to maintain visual contact with the ground. As we got established in cruise flight I asked CW2 Nole to get an artillery clearance for our route of flight. At about that same time I sighted two landing lights at an altitude of about 100 feet or less headed opposite our direction of flight.

The two lights belonged to two Cobras from the 114th AHC that were heading to Chau Doc for a night mission. The smoke was so bad they were flying low level with their landing lights on to illuminate the ground. I warned my flight about the two aircraft and watched them pass by us on the right and lower.

Very shortly after they passed there was a brilliant flash of light to our rear. I thought that one of the 114th Cobras had crashed and began a turn to the right assist them. As I established the turn WO1 Seagreen radioed, "Chuckie crashed!" I immediately increased my rate of turn and began calling Chuck on the radio. Chuck had in fact NOT crashed and was trying to answer my radio call. However, he was still set for the artillery call and was answering my continuing calls on their frequency. Chuck realized what was happening and switched to VHF to tell me he was okay and that it was Jack who had crashed.

After only a few minutes we spotted a weak flashing white light on the ground. That weak flashing white light was a key-chain penlight that Jack always carried with him. Behind the Aircraft Commander's seat we all had a grab-and-go ammo box that had several smoke grenades, a couple of flares, some .45 caliber, some .38 caliber, and some 5.56mm ammunition. After the crash Jack's mind was not operating at capacity and he could not remember how to activate a flare. Instead he set off a smoke grenade. When we didn't respond to that he remembered his penlight and began signaling with that. It worked and we knew that there was at least one survivor.

Once we began to circle above Jack's crashed helicopter I began to consider the options. We had to rescue Jack and his front seater as soon as possible. Other than the three remaining Cobras there were no other aircraft in the area and we were not in contact with any. I decided that I would have to land. I planned to load one of the rescued pilots in my front seat and have the other pilot and my front seater ride out on the ammo bay doors. The landing and subsequent anticipated takeoff presented some additional problems.

Visibility was continuing to deteriorate and still at 200 feet I had now lost visual contact with the ground. There was no way to see any obstructions around the crashed Cobra. In addition I was fully armed and had near full fuel aboard. This meant that I was about 2500 pounds over maximum gross weight. Normally not a problem but I was concerned about the extra weight of the two pilots and being able to clear any obstacles on the takeoff. I decided that I had to lighten the load.

The wing stores mounts on the Cobra have explosive bolts that will jettison the rocket pods in an emergency. I hit the jettison switch to blow the rocket pods. Nothing happened. I recycled the switch and tried again. Nothing! I tried again with the same results. I called Chuck and told him what I had done and what had happened. Chuck tried to jettison his rocket pods and his also refused to go. Bob Seagreen said he'd give his a try but both Chuck and I vetoed that idea.

The failed attempts to jettison our rocket pods meant that Chuck and I could not shoot our rockets because the pods might come off during the firing. If that happened, we could not be sure where the rockets might go. They could even come back into one of us! In case they would be necessary, Bob's Cobra now had the only safe rockets to fire.

Keeping an eye on the weak flashing light, I initiated an approach. I still could not see the ground and despite the bloom of light I knew it would cause, I turned on the landing light and told my front seater to watch for the ground. Somewhere between 50 and 100 feet he reported that he had spotted the ground. Shortly thereafter I did too. I tried to land well short of Jack's helicopter so my rotorwash would not disturb it. By pure luck I had also landed into the wind.

As I touched down I finally got a good look at Jack's Cobra. It was sitting fairly level but the tail boom was bent, the skids were destroyed, and the main rotor blades, main rotor head, and the mast were not in position. I also noticed what appeared to be black smoke rolling over the helicopter. The black smoke I later found out was in fact purple smoke. It was coming from one of the smoke grenades Jack had thrown.

We much later decided that even though Jack had the only operable attitude indicator, he had gotten a case of vertigo, zeroed out his airspeed, entered a settling-with-power condition and crashed. His initial impact was with the tail boom. This then caused the rest of the aircraft to impact the ground in a manner much like resting the heel of your hand on a surface and slapping your hand on that surface. This second impact caused the main transmission to break free of its mounts.

The main transmission then proceeded through the cockpit. We believe that as a result of the crash forces, Jack's head and upper body were bent forward and down. The transmission passed over Jack, struck his instrument panel and then struck the armor plating of the front seat. This resulted in flipping the transmission out of the aircraft. The main rotor blades had been severely damaged and at some point had stopped rotating. The transmission then came to rest on the ground in front of the helicopter with the main rotor mast lying up on the nose of the Cobra. The main rotor head and some of what remained of the main rotor blades were in the front seat.

Just after I landed, Jack came running up, lowered the right ammo bay door and stepped up. I asked him if he were hurt and Jack said he'd been cut. He proceeded to show me his right index finger. On the tip pad of his finger was what looked to me very much like a paper cut. Jack squeezed it and a faint red color appeared at the bottom of the slice.

Next I asked, "What about Captain ? ?" Jack replied that he was dead. I looked over and saw the captain collapsed in the front seat with the main rotor head on top of him. From the looks of it, I thought he was dead too. This captain had only been with us for four days. This was his third mission and now he was dead.

As I continued to look at him, a flash of light caught my eye. The captain had moved his arm and his wristwatch had reflected my landing light. "He's alive! Get him out!" I shouted to Jack and to my front seater. There wasn't a piece of the canopy intact on his aircraft but Jack reached in and grabbed my breakout knife anyway. (As a side note I never did get that knife back and had to order another one.)

While Jack and my front seater were trying to free the captain, Chuck had been trying to contact our Command and Control aircraft. Somehow he got hold of them, told them the situation, and had them head toward us. As Jack and my front seater were bringing the captain back toward me, Chuck told me that Lighthorse 6, Major Delmer Livengood, was enroute. I decided that it was better to wait until Major Livengood arrived with the UH-1 than to attempt a takeoff under the current conditions. Additionally, the captain would receive first aid sooner from the UH-1 crew than if I took off with him in the front and Jack and my front seater on the ammo bay doors.

After what seemed like hours, Lighthorse 6 arrived. Major Livengood still had the Vietnamese Commander, the Vietnamese Commander's assistant, and the American liaison, a MACV captain. As Jack and our injured captain were loaded aboard the UH-1, Major Livengood had the two Vietnamese and the MACV captain get off. Major Livengood had already called for a Dustoff aircraft to meet him at Chow Doc staging area. His plan was to move Jack and the captain to Chow Doc, get them aboard the Dustoff, load some ARVN soldiers and return to our position.

The people Major Livengood had dropped off had no radio and no light. This meant that I had to stay on the ground. If I had taken off we would have lost all reference to the ground and, more importantly, to the people and the crashed Cobra. I went to flight idle with my anti-collision beacon and navigation lights burning brightly so that Chuck and Bob had a visual reference.

The MACV captain came over and informed me that the major NVA infiltration route for the area was only about two kilometers away. He said that if we were attacked, his group would hunker down and we could shoot anywhere we wanted. Considering that I was sitting there at flight idle to conserve fuel and lit up like a Christmas tree, I was NOT thrilled to hear that.

The MACV captain also said that the crashed Cobra's engine was still running and wanted to know if I wanted to shut it down. There were still some wisps of smoke coming from it and I thought it had a small fire somewhere. I told him not to let anyone near the Cobra. I later found out that the engine had continued to run until the next morning when it ran out of fuel.

While I waited Chuck and Bob individually returned to Chow Doc to refuel. This procedure left at least one Cobra overhead for protection. After what seemed like several hours more, Major Livengood returned with a UH-1 full of ARVNs. After he landed and dropped off the troops and recovered the Vietnamese Commander, his assistant, and the MACV captain, I was finally able to take off again. I gathered my two remaining Cobras and headed for Vinh Long. Major Livengood said he was going to Can Tho to check on Jack and the captain. I'm not exactly sure of the time when we finally arrived at Vinh Long but I believe it was between 0100 and 0200. A very long and exciting day.

I was recommended for a Soldier's Medal for the above but was instead awarded a Bronze Star. Major Livengood jokingly said that if I spent anymore time on the ground I'd qualify for a Combat Infantryman's Badge.

The rest of the story is accurate the way Samm told it.

I received a Soldiers Medal for the incident about a year later at Fort Benning, Ga.  I was a little embarassed to except it.

What I have added is a factual account of the incident.

Tony K. Bankston
3/30/2002

The Captain with Jack Dalton was CPT Charles "Chuck" Schettler.  He was later OPS officer after returning from the hospital.
 
I was flying with Chuck Nole that night.  We were climbing to altitude to get through to My Tho Arty, I seem to recall.  We were passing about 2000 feet since Nole was having trouble getting through to them when I noticed that Munn's wing man was falling behind.  I saw Dalton crash in a level attitude and some of his rockets fire and bounce across the ground.  It happened very fast.  I thought he'd gotten into settling with power or something at the time.
 
Munn told Nole to call for a medevac and report to the troop commander.  We continued to orbit as comms relay while the others landed to render assistance.
 
I thought Munn's wingman was Duane Schmutz, CR32, but could be wrong.  I don't recall a Seagreen.
 
Jim Burch
Crusader 33