Hanson & Hubrins KIA
by Tom Ford
Our webmaster, Don Callison, for the combined site of C 3/17 and D 3/5 conjoined twin AC Troops faithfully sends anniversary notices to all of us combined Charlie Horse veterans on the dates of the losses of our brothers.
The narratives are in some cases incorrect to some degree, and the time and distance only makes these narratives more confusing as they likely conflict with the true history of the events.
Those discrepancies are largely why I wrote the Troop history and I'm grateful that you at the VHPA who graciously published it, and I'm equally thankful for Don's dedication to an effort that benefits all of us..
It was an effort I made for the next of kin and the descendants of our lost brothers to know the events leading to the loss of their loved ones.
The incident that was emailed to us commemorates the Sept 24, 1971 loss of a scout aircraft and the death of two of the occupants.
Accounts vary, but I'm concerned with the VHPA narrative as it is incorrect in several ways.
On 24 Sept, I had deployed a scout team consisting of two OH-6 Helicopters working as a team doing visual scouting in the near vicinity of Quang Tri Combat Base.
It was combined mission, but primarily focusing on training of the new pilots and crew members as the losses in the Scout Platoon had been high and introducing new crews into a full VR mission in the primary AO required hours and technique training.
They may have been flying OH-58 but I think by that date the Troop's transition into the OH-6 was complete.
Low level acrobatics in scouting takes a great deal of training and I was deploying these teams into what we referred to as our "backyard".
The enemy activity was usually low but the enemy traversed that area regularly.
The mixture of the crew has led to many mistakes in narration so let me clear it up hopefully once and for all.
In the aircraft that was forced down was a mixed crew of two pilots (WO1 Hanson and 1st Lt Wagner) and a gunner, not a Crew Chief, SGT Hubrins, who had transferred from P Co 75th Rangers with a six month extension to fly in the Scout Platoon.
Lt Wagner was in control of the aircraft and either snagged a tree with the tail rotor or took some small arms fire, that issue will never be clear,
and executed a decent forced landing into some high brush and trees.
The proximity to the base had two COBRA and a UH-1 Charlie Horse team there almost immediately and the area was secure.
The UH-1 had an ARP team but there was no clearing near to execute an insert, and the crew had no rope or harness to lift the crew out to a clearing for extract.
Amazingly, two 101st AB CH-47 were passing and monitoring our radio, one offered to do an extract and lift two crew members at a time to a clearing for our HUEY to extract.
Lt Wagner, having been the acting aircraft commander and the least banged up, ordered Hanson and Hubrins to harness up and he'd take the second lift.
What happened then is tragic but this is the best answer I have.
As the lift of the two crew members was being executed, the Crew chief of the CH-47 was unfamiliar with the mechanics of the lifting system.
It has been explained to me by several persons at different times that there is a selection switch for hoisting people into the aircraft, and a separate switch for hoisting equipment.
There was some confusion and as the two neared the hatch, somehow the mechanism released them and they fell.
The two CH-47 left, and I can understand the shock that must have been felt, and I've heard that the 47 AC never got over the incident, but I never got to debrief the pilots involved.
By the time of the actual extract, several more Charlie Horse aircraft had gotten on station and one, with a rope harness, extracted Lt Wagner, and Charlie Horse ARPs were able to recover the two dropped crew members.
Hanson was KIA but Hubrins was alive, only to pass later in the hospital system.
Charlie Horse Maintenance teams along with the ARPs recovered the downed Scout Aircraft.
That's the history as I know it, and I was the Operations Officer and all the reports went through my bunker and I debriefed all the D 3/5 crew members involved.
Tom Ford
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