Information on U.S. Army helicopter OH-6A tail number 66-07832
Date: 01/22/1968
Incident number: 68012200.KIA
Unit: A/7/17 Cav
This was a Combat incident. This helicopter was LOSS TO INVENTORY
This was a Recon mission for Unarmed Recon
While On Target this helicopter was at Hover at 0050 feet and UNK knots.
South Vietnam
UTM grid coordinates: ZA071503 (To see this location on a map, go to https://legallandconverter.com/p50.html and search on Grid Reference 48PZA071503)
Count of hits was not possible because the helicopter burned or exploded.
Small Arms/Automatic Weapons; Gun launched non-explosive ballistic projectiles less than 20 mm in size. (7.62MM)
The helicopter was hit in the Fuselage causing a Fire.
Systems damaged were: PERSONNEL
Casualties = 01 DOI, 02 INJ . . Number killed in accident = 0 . . Injured = 0 . . Passengers = 0
The helicopter Crashed. Aircraft Destroyed.
Both mission and flight capability were terminated.
Burned
costing 0
Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Defense
Intelligence Agency Helicopter Loss database. Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis
Center Helicopter database. Also: OPERA, LNOF, 80140, CASRP, FM232, HUGHS, JSIDR, McCleney
(Operations Report. Lindenmuth Old Format Data Base. Joint Services Incident Damage Report.
Casualty Report. )
Summary: Shot down while marking an enemy position for the gunships and airstrikes.
Loss to Inventory and Helicopter was not recovered
Crew Members:
CE SP4 PUISHIS DALE SCOTT KIA
P 1LT MCCLENEY DICKIE H WIA
OB SGT DAVENPORT JIM WIA
War Story:
Like so many of my flight school classmates, I was assigned to Ft. Knox to help form the two ACSs. I had been with A Troop's Scouts since the very beginning. I was flying the lead Scout LOH on this day with WO1 Jim Smith as my wingman. He had a mini-gun system on his LOH, but I had taken mine off some time back and started flying with an observer and the CE. Dale had the M-60 and was in the right-rear position. My first observer was SGT Blansett but he had recently ETSed and SGT Jim Davenport had replaced him. The other Scout team was 1LT Jim Sapp and WO1 Don Peters. If I remember the mission correctly, we were looking for an enemy unit that had rocketed the hospital in Pleiku. We had been working this valley just a few miles from Pleiku all day from north to south and we finally found them near the southern end. Needless to say, but they weren't too happy that we had found them and were shooting at us. We had called in the gunships and basically were making marking passes when our ship took several hits. I remember pulling in all the power but the engine was dying so I put it in a tail down attitude as we crashed into the jungle. I woke up to a totally engulfed burning helicopter that had come to rest in an up-right position. I punched the quick released and rolled on the ground to put out the flames on my uniform. I hope Dale died from gunshot wounds rather than burn-up in that wreck. I didn't see SGT Davenport at that time but would later met up with him at the hospital in Pleiku. After I got the flames out, I noticed that I was being shot at so I started back to the helicopter for a weapon but there was really nothing there to help me. I was wearing a flight jacket because it was cold, so I took it off and kept waving the orange side at the aircraft but never got their attention. I knew I wasn't too far from Pleiku and could see from the sun the direction I needed to go, so I started walking. I'd guess I walked a couple of klicks. I remember once sitting down on the side of a hill and watching the airstrikes go in. I remember passing some fresh APC tracks on the ground and decided that I'd follow them for a while. I hadn't gone too far when I could hear their engines and realized they were coming in my direction. I stood out in the middle of this trail with my arms in the air displaying my flight jacket all the time praying that they wouldn't shoot me. Luckily they saw me and didn't shoot. It was a mech unit from the 4th I.D. One of the APCs drove up to me and asked if I was McCleney. I said Yes and learned that I had been reported as KIA and that they were moving toward my burning LOH. They quickly knocked down some trees to make a PZ and Pleiku DUSTOFF came and took me to the hospital. I didn't have any gunshot wounds just lots of cuts and bruises but it was my burns that got me evaced. I spent a couple days at Pleiku, then a couple more at Qui Nhon, then a couple in the Philippines and Japan, etc. You know that standard Army medical evacuation route. By about mid-April I was back on duty and would return to Vietnam in 1970 to fly with the 101st. In the hospital I learned the SGT Davenport had used his strobe light to get enough attention to be rescued. His injuries would also get him evaced. I also learned that MAJ Dudley J. Carver had been shot in his right hand while flying the C&C ship low and slow over the area where we crashed. I heard that the H-model they were flying was shot-up so badly that they had to hook it back from the Pleiku hospital pad to Enari for repairs. I think a new Warrant named Murphy was flying with him that day and that they had some other WOs flying as gunners in the back end. MAJ Carver's injuries would get him evaced as well. You notice that A Troop had several LOHs shot up that day - CPT Charlie Rayl was flying many of them. As I understand it, finally MAJ Bob Inglett told Charlie to stay on the ground - that he'd done enough for one day. So MAJ Carver's tour was over and MAJ Inglett became A Troop's new CO. Submitted to the VHPA Sep 2002.
Per 4th Division ORRL for above date, the grid was vicn. ZA 071503. AC was shot down with one KIA and two WIA.while supporting C, 2/8 Inf. When C, 2/8 secured AC, another firefight broke-out during which the pilot was wounded. Later in the evening another 7/17 Cav AC was shot down at ZA 103455 resulting in two US WIA.
This record was last updated on 09/11/2002
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