Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1E
Other Personnel in Incident: Ronald J. Janousek (missing)
When U.S. military personnel were in Vietnam, they were
frequently asked to participate in classified missions. Some of these missions
were secret because wide-spread knowledge of them might possibly give the
enemy information we did not wish them to have. Others were classified to
conceal the fact that the U.S. was conducting warfare in denied areas.
The most notorious denied area was, of course, Laos. Prevented by Geneva
Accords from having a large military presence in Laos, the U.S. first
established a CIA cover for anti-communist covert actions. One activity, begun
in 1958, used Meo tribesmen for a small pilot guerrilla program, which grew to
over 40,000 guerrillas within 10 years. The CIA's covert airline, known as
"Air America" supported the Meo as well as numerous other CIA-backed
clandestine guerrilla armies.
When ground operations were indicated or intelligence needed, the U.S. used
the CIA-directed armies, sent U.S. troops in covert MACV-SOG teams, or
airlifted in indigenous troops, often using the air capabilities of the U.S.
Army and Marine Corps.
The following is the account of the loss of Ronald Janousek
and Bruce Kane.
On
August 9 of 1969 a flight of Scarface two gunships flying under the call sign
“Eagle Claw” led a combined force of Marine, Army and AFVN (Vietnamese Air
Force) helicopters on a Prairie Fire Emergency across the
Laotian border.
The lead Marine aircraft was flown by Major Tom Hill with 1st Lt.
Ronald J. Janousek as his copilot and Corporal J. J. Dean
and Corporal Bruce E. Kane as flight crew.
Their mission was to command the extraction of a
SOG reconnaissance platoon which was being chased by a large North
Vietnamese Army force.
The mission aircraft included Major Hill’s two UH1E Huey gunships, 4
Army Cobras , several
Army Huey slicks, and several VNAF H-34's.
When
Major Hill arrived in the vicinity of the reconnaissance team with his flight of
two UH1E gunships he learned that just a few minutes earlier a Army Cobra,
piloted by Captain Mike Brokovick,
had taken heavy fire from a ridge line near the team's position.
Major Hill exposed his aircraft to the same gun positions as he
maneuvered to over fly the recon team.
His aircraft was hit by ground fire and lost power.
The aircraft was streaming fuel which burst into flames as Major Hill
maneuvered to land near the Xepon River.
The aircraft became a fireball as it auto-rotated towards the river.
At 75 feet above the ground the tail boom fell off and the Huey abruptly
fell into the river.
The aircraft came to rest inverted and almost fully submerged in the
swiftly flowing water.
The
other pilots acted swiftly to investigate the wreckage for signs of survivors
despite continued heavy enemy fire.
The four Cobras led by Captain Mike
Brokovich made repeated gun runs to suppress
enemy fire while an VNAF
H-34, call sign Kingbee, hovered along the river looking for survivors.
Kingbee
found Major Hill and Corporal Dean alive on the opposite bank of the river,
about 100 meters down stream from the crash site.
One of the Army Huey slicks subsequently lifted them out on strings.
Meanwhile the Kingbee drew continuous enemy fire as he air taxied back
upstream to the crash site and looked for the other two crew members.
He hovered close to the sunken wreckage and pushed the main landing gear
wheel of his H-34 through the cockpit window.
Then he lifted the wreckage up so that his crew chief could see the
interior of the cabin.
No survivors were seen.
Throughout this time the Kingbee was under continuous enemy fire as he
performed an extremely dangerous maneuver which risked trapping his aircraft in
the wreckage of the Huey.
The
mission leader then turned his attention to the rescue of the SOG platoon which
remained under enemy pressure beyond the river.
After returning to base to refuel and rearm the mission aircraft
successfully extracted the SOG platoon.
Captain
Frank Cuddy, also from HML 367, led a relief flight of gunships to the crash
site on the evening of the crash and again on the following morning.
These efforts to search the site were driven away by intense enemy fire,
and enemy activity at the crash site involving numerous boats was observed.
No further missions to search the site were mounted by HML 367 as the
survivors were presumed dead or captured.
Bruce
Kane’s mother was informed that her son had died in Vietnam.
She was told that her son survived the crash and made it safely ashore
but returned to the aircraft in an heroic attempt to rescue the copilot from
which he did not return.
For this valor Bruce Kane was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
The
bodies of Cpl. Kane and Lt. Janousek have never been recovered.
In 1994 the DOD took the position that Cpl. Kane should be classified
as “Last Known Alive”, which includes cases in which the crew members are
believed to have successfully exited their aircraft and to have been alive on
the ground.
If you
have information about this action please contact me at markbyrd@swbell.net
.....
Mark A. Byrd, USMC (1965-1972)
copyright
2000, Mark Austin Byrd
