Helicopter OH-6A 67-16634


Information on U.S. Army helicopter OH-6A tail number 67-16634
The Army purchased this helicopter 0369
Total flight hours at this point: 00000702
Date: 04/12/1970 MIA-POW file reference number: 1593
Incident number: 70041230.KIA
Unit: A/7/17 CAV
This was a Combat incident. This helicopter was LOSS TO INVENTORY
This was a Recon mission for Armed Recon
While On Target this helicopter was Attacking at 0010 feet and 020 knots.
South Vietnam
UTM grid coordinates: YB853347 (To see this location on a map, go to https://legallandconverter.com/p50.html and search on Grid Reference 48PYB853347)
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)
Systems damaged were: PERSONNEL
Casualties = 01 KIA, 01 MIA . .
The helicopter Crashed. Aircraft Destroyed.
Both mission and flight capability were terminated.
Burned
Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Defense Intelligence Agency Reference Notes. Defense Intelligence Agency Helicopter Loss database. Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center Helicopter database. Also: 1593, LNNF, JSIDR, CASRP, CRAFX, FM385 (Lindenmuth New Format Data Base. Joint Services Incident Damage Report. Crash Facts Message. Casualty Report. )
Summary: Was shot down during a VR mission east and south of Dak To.
Loss to Inventory

Crew Members:
P CPT ROBINSON GUS BLAKELY KIA
O SP4 RE TABB POW


War Story:
VHPA Member Gary Downs recalls: Gus and I were West Point Classmates and had been through a lot together. The events surrounding his death are some of the strongest memories I have of Vietnam. Two NVA Regts had had the SF camp at Dak Seang under siege for some time. During that period NOTHING was getting in and out of the camp without getting shot down. I remember when things quieted down that there was a med evac, another Huey and two wrecked Caribou on the runway. We worked the flanks of the battle most of the time. We are always putting in airstrikes or shooting lots of Arty and doing BDAs for Arclights. I wasn't flying the day Gus was shot down but I was the next two days. It took us that long to get our Blues into the area. They had to blow an LZ with a 5,000 Daisy Cutter near the top of Hill 763 for us to get the Blues in. They found an NVA AA crew in a bunker and killed them before they could get the gun operational again. We displayed it outside our place at Holloway for some time after that. They found that Gus' LOH had rolled down the hill and that he was still strapped inside. He had two bullets in the head, so it was no wonder that it crashed. The Blues also found Tabb's shirt in a tree, so we figured he had been captured. I'll never forget that valley north of Dak To. It was very beautiful, but you never had any trouble drawing fire there!

This record was last updated on 05/25/1998


This information is available on CD-ROM.

Additional information is available on KIAs at http://www.coffeltdatabase.org

Please send additions or corrections to: The VHPA Webmaster Gary Roush.

KIA statistics

Return to the KIA name list

Return to the KIA panel date index

Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023


Copyright © 1998 - 2023 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association