The Price We Paid

"The price paid"

"Qui procol hinc, Qui ante diem perritt: Sed miles, sed pro patria....He died far away, before his time, but as a soldier and for his country." -- from the poem Clifton Chapel, by Henry Newbolt

Til the last landing's made,
and we stand unafraid
on a shore no mortal has seen...
'til the last bugle call
sounds taps for us all, it's
Semper Fidelis Marines!

Oh my friends, my friends forgive me that I live and you are gone.
There's a grief that can't be spoken; there's a pain goes on and on.
Phantom faces at the window. Phantom shadows on the floor.
Empty chairs at empty tables where my friends will meet no more.
Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me what your sacrifice was for.
Empty chairs at empty tables where my friends will sing no more...

"Empty Chairs at Empty Tables"
from Les Miserables

Lyrics by HERBERT KRETZMER

Incident Date 690809 UH-1E 155339+

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... markbyrd@swbell.net Mark A. Byrd, USMC (1965-1972)

BUNO 153757

At about 1040 hours on 14 November 1967, Capt. Milton Kelsey, pilot, 1^st Lt. Thomas Carter, copilot, and crew chief Cpl. Ronald Phelps lifted from VMO-3’s mat at Phu Bai in BUNO 153757, designated Scarface 1-0. At 1145, they picked up Major General Bruno Hochmuth, CG 3^rd MARDIV, his aide Maj. Robert Crabtree and Liaison Maj. Nguyen Ngoc Chuong to visit ARVN BGen. Ngo Quang Truong in Hue. The aircraft departed the hospital pad at Hue Citadel at 1145, enroute to Dong Ha and was chased by an HMM-364 UH-34 piloted by Capt. J. A. Chancey.

At 1150, the aircraft was flying northwest over Hwy. 1 at about 1500 feet. At YD672266, Capt. Chancey saw the aircraft’s nose yaw to the right twice and at the same instant the aft/engine section exploded in an orange fireball. The fuselage separated from the rotor and the aircraft fell in pieces. The fuselage landed inverted in a flooded rice paddy; the tail cone a short distance away. A Sparrowhawk was immediately dispatched, as well as an aircraft recovery team from VMO-3. Burning fuel on the surface of the paddy hampered recovery, however there was no evidence of explosion in the fuselage. The bodies were returned to Phu Bai and pronounced by Lt. John Parrish; all are believed to have been killed on impact.

Immediately after the crash, and in the years since, a great many rumors circulated concerning the cause, ranging from enemy ground fire, to ARVN artillery fire, to U.S. friendly fire, and even sabotage. Gen. Hochmuth was the first and only Marine general officer to die in Vietnam, and there was a good deal of pressure to list his death as combat-related. Moreover, this was VMO-3’s largest loss of life in Vietnam and it was difficult to accept that these squadron-mates could have died in anything but combat. In fact, the aircraft suffered a tail rotor gear box failure and the official findings on the incident, submitted by BGen Robert Keller in November, 1967, states “there is no evidence to indicate this mishap was caused either by hostile action or inadvertent friendly fire.”

A few days later, the squadron held a memorial service in the new, thatch-roof chapel at Phu Bai, and for the second time in 1967, we sang the Navy Hymn.

Lord, guard and guide the men who fly

Through the great spaces in the sky.

Be with them always in the air,

In darkening storm or sunlight fair,

O hear us when we lift our prayer,

For those in peril in the air

Courtesy Ron Zaczek

"The UH-1E that Ron Phelps was in crashed as a result of tail rotor failure although I can't say how it landed. It was in our hanger for a while and they went over our maintenance procedures with a fine tooth comb. Everyone was really paranoid for quite some time.

Our area was primarily the Phu Bai region; we also had a detachment in Khe Sanh that we rotated every two weeks or so. One of our duties was to ferry Gen Hochmuth around when and where he wanted to go. Ron and I were both crew chiefs and we all took turns on the Generals slick. From what I can remember we spent a week or two at a time on this duty. When it was my turn to come off the slick, Ron took over for me. It wasn’t too long after that when the crash occurred and they all were killed. I had purchased a new camera just about that time and it was my good fortune to take a picture of Ron in front of our squadron sign. I needn’t tell you how special that picture still is after all this time." Submitted by Richard T. Musante, VMO-3

BUNO 152438

"lstLt (Rhodes launched out on a gunship mission as co-pilot with Ed Bauernfeind as the HAC, and two crewmen, L/Cpl's Danny Hesson, and Gene Siler. They were the second gunship (chase) of a flight of two. The flight was assigned to provide fire on a target near the DMZ, near the Charlie 4, or Con Tien area, when they received heavy fire. This aircraft was hit in the tail boom/tail rotor area, and crashed. A U. S. Army ground team was near by, and rescued Bauernfeind, the only survivor, who was severely injured. The next morning, Lt. Unruh, piloting one UH1E, and Lt. John Upthegrove, piloting another, flew to the area and photographed the aircraft, observing many large holes shot in the tail boom, back to the tail rotor." Aircraft VT-12 152438 Courtesy Perry Unruh

AC S/N 68-17045, 68-15213

On March 25, 1970 four pilots died and two aircraft were lost in a midair collision which was one of the worst disasters in the history of the HML 367. At least one flight line crewman was also injured by exploding ammunition during attempts to rescue the trapped pilots from the burning wreckage.

The midair occurred on the afternoon of March 25, 1970 when a flight of two Scarface Cobras entered the landing pattern at Marble Mountain Air Facility in parade formation. The flight leader was 1st Lt. Roger A. Lakin and his copilot was 1st Lt. Michael E. Justus. The wingman was 1st Lt. Frank Sacharanski with his copilot 1st Lt. Toby R. Gritz. Near the point where we normally “flew the break” the rotor disks of the two Cobras overlapped with a loud snapping sound heard over the entire airfield. Both aircraft lost their main rotors and fell to the ground from a height of 1000 feet. The two aircraft crashed near the control tower and close to the flight line of HML 367.

Within a few seconds of the impact several flight line personnel and pilots of HML 367 arrived at the scene and begin to attempt to rescue the pilots. One of the pilots was still alive, trapped in the wreckage which was rapidly being consumed by fire. The flight line personnel were unprotected by fire fighting clothing but attempted to free the pilot before it was too late. They were driven from the aircraft by the intense heat and by exploding ammunition. One armorer was injured when the mini-gun of one of the cobras fired during the rescue attempts. The trapped pilot was soon killed by the heat and fumes in the cockpit. By the time the crash crew and fire fighting equipment extinguished the flames all four pilots were dead.

Dozens of personnel on duty at the air field witnessed the fall of the aircraft when they looked skyward in response to the noise of the collision. A few witnesses saw the moment of contact between the two aircraft. Many of the witness reports vary as to the details and in the aftermath there was considerable speculation as to the cause of the collision.

Request of Witnesses

If you witnessed this tragedy and the subsequent rescue efforts, or know someone who did, please contact us. We would like to build a collection of the accounts of this very dark day in the life of Scarface. You may post you account on the comments page of the web site or preferably send an email to:

Mark A. Byrd, markbyrd@swbell.net

If you do not wish to make your comments public I would still appreciate hearing from you and will use your input to help build a complete picture of the events of that day.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

Shakespeare

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Brad Ryti bryti@scarface-usmc.org .

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