More detail on this person: At Kathy's request
it is my sad duty to let you know Herb died the
evening of Sat. Aug. 27, 2016 in Panama City
Beach, FL area after a short illness. After
cremation, internment will be in Arlington at a
future date. A Celebration of Life memorial
service is being planned for some time in November
in the Panama City Beach area. Herb was an H-3
Instructor at Eglin, then Chief of Standardization
at Rescue stationed at Scott, from there CO of the
Rescue unit at Clark, retiring as a Col. from
Kirtland. He was the aircraft commander of the
H-3 that landed in the Son Tay, NVN prison camp in
the fall of 1970, for which he was awarded the Air
Force Cross. After retirement, Herb built a
series of homes in the Angel Fire, NM where he
lived for 30 years subsequently moving to Panama
City Beach, Fl. the past few years. Herb is
survived by his wife Kathy and daughter Kristy.
Herb was my dear friend, skiing buddy and I will
miss him.
From: Wally Barnes
Editor's Note: There was one HH-3E on the
mission from 37 ARRS. It was the assault
helicopter that was crash landed inside the
compound. The five HH-53Cs were from 40 ARRS.
From Jim Burns: Kalen's Air Force Cross citation
list him as being with the 40th ARRS on the Son
Tay Raid, he also has a Silver Star and some DFC's
while with the 37th ARRS. The Son Tay Raid was a
special mission and the crews used birds that were
assigned and already in Thailand, but the raider
crews all trained outside of Thailand (mostly at
Eglin AFB, FL) then were flown into Thailand on a
C-141. But I really don't know what unit they were
officially assigned with. The normal crews
assigned to Thailand were not aware of the mission
or where they were going. I do know that the
flight engineer on the HH-3E that Herb Kalen and
crew deliberately crashed into the camp, handed
the birds flight records, that are normally
carried with each bird, back to the crew chief
just before they taxied out and told him that he
wouldn't be needing them anymore.
This information was last updated 08/30/2016
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