Information on U.S. Army helicopter OH-58A tail number 69-16085
The Army purchased this helicopter 0570
Total flight hours at this point: 00000375
Date: 02/23/1971
Incident number: 71022323.KIA
Unit: D/3/5 CAV 5 INF
This was a Combat incident. This helicopter was LOSS TO INVENTORY
This was a Recon mission for Unarmed Recon
While in Operations Area this helicopter was Unknown at 0050 feet and 080 knots.
Laos
UTM grid coordinates: XD652487 (To see this location on a map, go to https://legallandconverter.com/p50.html and search on Grid Reference 48QXD652487)
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. (12.7MM)
Systems damaged were: PERSONNEL
Casualties = 03 DOI . . 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, LNNF, FM386, CASRP, Fred Blanchard (Operations
Report. Lindenmuth New Format Data Base. Casualty Report. )
Summary: Scout mission on Laos border in SVN took fire from large enemy force, tried to stretch autorotation and ran out of RPM, crashed & burned
Loss to Inventory and Helicopter was not recovered
Crew Members:
P CW2 HISCOCK STEPHEN MAYO KIA
CE SGT ARMENTROUT RAYMOND LEE KIA
OB SP4 WALERZAK WILLIAM THOMAS KIA
War Story:
I was part of the effort to recover their bodies. I remember there were three of them in the OH-58, Stephen Hiscock, Ray Armentrout and their observer whose name I can not remember or find. I am not sure what his call sign was besides Charlie Horse. They were on a VR mission around an area that we nicked named the Cabbage Patch. It was the same place where John Hunter and Carl Nacca were killed on the 20th. CPT Paul (George) Carter and 1LT Al Wester were shot down immediately behind Hunter and Naccas. It was a cultivated area where no civilians were supposed to be. We had been keeping a pretty close eye on it. A few days earlier we had found vehicle tracks through the cultivated area that almost had to be NVA. On the 20th our two Cobras were hit with 50 fire and most likely a twin or quad 50 set up, so the Cabbage Patch was well defended. Their VR mission was part of the Lam Son 719 thing. Submitted to the VHPA in March, 2000 by Fred Blanchard.
This record was last updated on 03/27/2000
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Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023
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