Ten thousands miles from home, four Air Force Combat Military Police were slowly patrolling the perimeter of DaNang Air Base, the largest United States’ Air Base in Vietnam. It was a typical dark, cold, monsoon rainy night in the jungles of South Vietnam.
The night had been relatively quiet. The silence broken only by a dim, yellow glow from a slap flare as it slowly swayed back and forth in its meandering descent back to earth, and an occasional echo of the bark from a distant 105 Howitzer.
As it often did, the night silence was blanketed by rain falling down in squaws, blown in off the South China Sea. The patrol vehicle inched its way along a heavy worn path. Their standard issue ponchos did little to keep the four Patrolmen dry as the drenching rain continued.
The conversation between the four occupants died down to an occasional sigh or cough. A voice from the two-way radio suddenly broke the monotonous silence.
"Tiger One to Patrol-3, come in!"
The Sergeant in charge of the patrol, picked up the mike, keyed it, and said: "Patrol -3 Over!"
"We have a possible 10-28, possible emergency Land off of the South runway. Do you copy Patrol -3?"
"Patrol -3 copy!"
"Patrol-3, take up a stationary position near the end of the runway and standby! Over!"
"Patrol-3 copies! Over and out!"
The Sergeant instructed the driver of the canvas top jeep to quickly advance to the end of the runway.
"Pull over there, and cut the engine!"
They immediately saw the dim glow of the landing lights on the aircraft as it quickly approached the Air Field. One of the patrolmen, in a high pitched voice said;
"Sarge, its not going to make it to the runway!"
The Sergeant nervously responded; "Hell! I can see that!"
He turned in his seat so as to address the two men in the back, and said:
"As soon as the plane hits the ground, Maken, you take the left flank and Johnson, you take the right."
He turned the driver (the next ranking Patrolman) Bill, "You stay with the vehicle and standby the radio!"
The three men were well versed in what to do in this situation. The Sergeant further commanded; "Be sure you I.D. your target before busting off a round!"
As they positioned themselves, the C-123 Aircraft (Flare ship) smashed into the red mud surface and catapults along the ground infighting anti-personnel mines designed to kill the enemy but now blowing holes in the undercarriage of our friendly craft. The craft slid for several yards and the veered violently to the left coming to a sudden, jolting halt. Amazingly, one landing light was still functional, and the light flooded a small area in front of the craft. The rest of the plane was not as fortunate. The wheels and the engines have broken off; the fuselage has broken in three sections; and the nose of the craft was deeply embedded into the soft red mud.
The noisy jungle grew eerily quiet, even the crickets were silent. The men were in their positions. The Sergeant yelled to the Radio Operator: "I’m going in!"
He quickly ran a zigzag pattern across the muddy field to the rear of the aircraft where he nervously switched on his five cell flashlight and tried to see into the interior of the craft. He heard the muffled sound of voices coming from within.
The loading ramp of the craft was still down from the craft’s flare dropping mission. It was at a slight angle and was wet from the rain. As the Sergeant struggled to get on the wet ramp with his muddy boots, He thinks to himself: "I hope the SAT team arrives before the Vet Cong do!" The sound of the Emergency Vehicle coming down the runway provided some brief relief.
Once upon the ramp, he slowly advanced into the interior of the craft. As he flashed his light around , he spotted a couple of large flares hanging precariously from their rack. He could smell the acidic odder of burning wires and the distinct odder of spilt hydraulic fluid.
As the Sergeant peer deeper into the wreckage, he spotted two men slowly advancing toward him. One of the two was bleeding profusely from a serious scalp wound, but he still found the strength to help the other who was more seriously injured and in a state of shock. To the Sergeant, it appeared that the worse of the two bit through his tongue and perhaps had a broken jaw. He was bleeding and is very weak.
The man with the scalp wound was on the verge of passing out. The Sergeant said; "I’ve got him! You set down; the crash crew is on their way right now!"
The seriously injured man was much heavier than the Sergeant anticipated, but he managed to get him the short distance to the open cargo ramp. At the back of the ramp, the Sergeant found the rain had started up again in full force, the ramp was still wet and his boots were still caked with red mud.
Suddenly, the injured man slipped and as the Sergeant tried to keep him from falling, his right knee buckled because an old injury had weakened it. Both men fell from the ramp three or four feet to the muddy ground. The Sergeant fell first landing on his back providing a cushion that helped break the injured man’s fall. To add to the calamity, the force of the much larger injured man crippled the Sergeant. The Sergeant immediately felt a sharp pain in his lower back and in the already injured knee.
Fortunately, by this time (approximately eight to ten minutes from the time the plane stopped moving) the Crash Crew arrived and went into action. The injured man was immediately placed in an emergence vehicle. The other six crew members were also rescued. The Sergeant was quickly on his feet. The pain in his back and knee were permanent, but at the time, the adrenaline was pumping and the Sergeant didn’t notice how severe his injuries were.
In the meantime, the Air Police Flight Commander (A T/Sgt.) and the Air Police Commander. (A Lt. Col.) arrived on the scene. The Sergeant was hobbling around from the knee injury. The Flight Commander asked him if he was alright? He replied; "Yeah, I think so, I just hurt my knee a little bit." The Flight Commander then instructed the Sergeant to return to the aircraft and retrieve any and all crew weapons. The Sergeant retuned, and retrieved three M-16 rifles. The Sergeant never learned the extent of the injured man’s wounds.
The Beginning of the end for the Sergeant
Several days after the Aircraft Incident, the Sergeant was still limping as he came out of the CSC building. A Ranking NCO stopped him and asked him why he was limping?
"Ah! It’s just an old knee injury!"
Having seen such personal disregard many times, the Senior NCO instructed the junior leader to roll up his pants leg and show him the cause of his limp. The junior Sergeant rolled up the pants leg beyond the knee cap.
The Senior NCO needed only one look at the obvious injury, and instructed his subordinate, the junior Sergeant, to report to the Dispensary "Immediately!"
Without knowledge of the Sergeant’s back injury, the Doctor examined the Sergeant’s knee and had a corpsman rap it and give him a set of crutches with instructions for him to return to his barracks where he was to pack his bags for Air Evacuation to the hospital in Tokyo, Japan tomorrow.
The Sergeant’s reason for not mentioning the back injury was simple. He thought that after a short stay in the hospital, he would be returned to his unit. The Sergeant had over sixteen years in the military and was trying desperately to make it to his retirement at twenty years. After all, he had a wife and two you young children to think about.
The Sergeant spent a month in the hospital in Japan and was then Air Evacuated to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He spent five months in the hospital there, where he underwent physical Therapy. He was informed that he would have to meet a Medical Board for a physical evaluation. A few days later he met the board. The results of that board impact him physiologically for the rest of his life. He was medically discharged in April of 1966. Seventeen years down the old preverbal tub.
Like many discharged service members, the once proud Great American was thrown into civilian life without regard to his ability to adjust or even survive. The five years after his unwanted termination from the organization he still loves today were traumatic to say the least. He was a policeman at heart and training with seventeen years experience, but due to his injuries, could never again be a policeman.
In 1973, he had the happy occasion to meet up with his old Flight Commander from DaNang Air Base. The old Sergeant asked him if he had ever received the Bronze Star metal that he had recommended him for? The once proud service member assured him that he was not aware of the recommendation, nor had he received it. The old Sergeant became irate, and stated that he would immediately write a letter of inquiry and protest to the Air Force. Which he did!
A few days later, he received a copy of the letter that the old Sergeant had written to the Air Force.
A few weeks later he received a letter from the Air Force, informing him that they had no record of the recommendation, but if he would obtain sworn statements from the members of the crew of the down aircraft, the Air Force would consider evaluating the situation. The ex-Sergeant had no way of obtaining the names of the crew. (There were no personal computers at that time.)
Over the years as the ex-Sergeant settled into civilian life, he simply forgot about the citation. Decades after the fiery night that left him broken had passed, his grown and married daughter was filing some of his old papers, when she ran across the old Sergeant’s recommendation of a citation for her father.
She immediately, began to bug him about trying to obtain the metal. She wrote three different Congressmen in regards to the metal. They all promised to look into the matter. She never heard back from any of them. Several other friends of the ex-Sergeant tried also to help in the quest for the metal, but without any success. After 30 some years the ex-Sergeant was able to obtain the names of the crew from the down plane. He attempted for over two years to contact one or all of them, without success. The citation was again forgotten.
As he moved on with his life, the ex-Sergeant authored a pair of novels about Vietnam Era event, and in one of these novels he wrote a chapter on the aircraft incident. One day, shortly after his second novel was published, he received a call from a gentleman who identified himself as a retired Master Sergeant and the President of a Military Police Association. He said that he had read the chapter on the Aircraft incident in the novel, and then asked if the incident had actually transpired. He was informed that the incident did occur, basically as it was depicted in the novel. The Master Sergeant informed the ex-Sergeant that he was willing to help him locate the missing crew and would try to help obtain the citation from the Air Force. He was furnished the list of names of the crew.
Two days later the Master Sergeant called the ex-Sergeant again and informed him that he had located and spoken with the man that he had help remove from the Aircraft on that monsoon night, in the jungles of South Vietnam in 1965. He further stated that the man was a retired Colonel living on the East coast, and that the Colonel stated that the ex-Sergeant’s account of the incident was totally correct, down to the smallest detail.
The Colonel and the ex-Sergeant exchanged memories of the incident on the internet. Will the ex-Sergeant receive the long awaited citation? Time will tell or as some of you may remember "Only the Shadow Knows!"
Jackie R. Kays
Proud American!
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