Pacific Stars and Stripes information
for D/3/4 CAV
25 INF DIV
For date 680726
D/3/4 CAV was a US Army unit
25 INF DIV was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Tay Ninh Province, III Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Nui Ba Den
Description: Copter Rescue Was a Real Cliff-Hanger
CU CHI, Vietnam (Special) - The toe of the light observation helicopter's right skid perched precariously on a boulder. The rotor blade chomped furiously at nearby trees. The chopper's body hung menacingly to the cliff's edge. At the base of the cliff nestled a Viet Cong base camp. The six man long range patrol (LRP) realized their fate hung on the cliff with the chopper. They were out of food and water, and the VC knew they were there. The series of events bringing the courageous pilot to this perilous mountainside began four days earlier, when a 25th Inf. Div. patrol left the U.S. base on the 3,200-foot summit of Nui Ba Den in Tay Ninh Province. Their mission was to gather intelligence as they moved down the 45-degree, enemy-infested slopes. They were to call for extraction two days later in the rice paddies at the base of the mountain. On the second day, the men neared the bottom only to find their planned exit blocked by a VC base camp. "We couldn't get through" Charlie so we tried to go back up and around and come down again," explained Sgt. Willard R. Ethridge, 19, of Atlanta, leader of the F Co., 50th Inf., patrol. They tried . . . once, twice, three times. Each time they ran into "Charlie." Finally, on the third day, they stopped in a rocky gulch one third up the mountain and radioed for help. One man's leg had been injured by a falling rock. Another man had suffered heat exhaustion. "We were out of food and water. When it rained we would catch the water running off the rocks in our canteens - a little dirty, but it was good." said Sped. 4 Joseph Hitchens, 20, of New Orleans. Two other LRP's at the foot of the mountain started moving toward the trapped patrol. They both ran into enemy .50-cal. machine-gun and rocket-grenade fire and had to be extracted. A 25-man reaction force from F Co. got 200 meters up the mountain before nightfall. The next day they tried to reach their beleaguered buddies but got pinned down in a fire fight with the VC. Shortly before noon, two Huey Cobra gunships from D Troop, 3rd Sq., 4th Cav., arrived and began spewing hot lead and rockets on the enemy in an attempt to clear the area for a helicopter extraction. A medevac chopper arrived to get the injured man out first. There was no clearing near the six men large enough for the "slick's" big rotor blade, and the plan was to drop a hoist for the man. The pilot hovered over twice, but both times enemy fire drove him off. Maj. Fred R. Michelson, 35 commanding officer of D Troop from Clayton, Mo., was flying "command and control" in the OH-6A Cayuse light observation helicopter (LOH). He called for more fire power. Two Cobras from D Co. of the 25th Aviation Bn., two Huey gunships form the 4th Cavalry Sq., and two Air Force tactical jets soon joined the other Cobras in pounding the enemy. A second dust-off ship with a hoist arrived. As the pilot tried to get in close enough to drop his lift, enemy sniper fire knocked out the communications between the pilot and the hoist operator. To add to the problems, the clouds opened up, and a tropical downpour forced the helicopters to return to the 25th Div.'s base camp at Tay Ninh. By the time the storm cleared it was nearing dusk. "Michelson decided that the only choice was to try to resupply the patrol and hope they could make it through the night. The gunships again lit up the foot of the mountain with their rockets and mini-guns as W.O. Stephen R. Patterson piloted the LOH in over the men. Michelson leaned out on the skid and swung a bag of food, water and radio batteries toward a granite ledge. It bounced, fell over the cliff and rolled into the Viet Cong base camp below. Then Patterson, 22, of Riverside, Calif. spotted a boulder in a clearing it was just wide enough to get on skid in. "I hovered down and put the toe of my right skid on the rock to steady the aircraft because of the bad updrafts. The LRP's handed out the injured man to Michelson," said Patterson. Having made it once, Patterson decided to take his four-seat chopper back for the other men. Alone this time, he again perched his bird on the rock. Two more men leaped from the rock to the skid and into the chopper. "Every time they jumped on the aircraft, it would lurch, and I'd cut down a few small trees with my rotor," recalled the pilot. Three men were left, and it was getting dark. They had one more smoke grenade. Patterson radioed them to save it in case he didn't make the third try. He began hunting the mountainside for the spot. At one point he flew right over the VC base camp but did not draw any fire. Finally, he found the ledge and hovered in again. The men threw on their radio and packs. Two men jumped on first. To the last man, Pfc. Merilan Henry, 20, the tiny helicopter looked full. And Patterson was fighting to recover the ship from a lurch caused by the weight. "I couldn't wait. I just dove in," Henry said. "All I could do was throw my feet on- the rest of my body was hanging over the side. I had my right hand up on the pilot's chair, and the team leader was holding on to my left hand." With Henry hanging out the side, the LOH lifted away from the steep slope 1,200 feet up. What had looked impossible had been accomplished not once but three times. Modestly Patterson admitted: "It did get a little hairy there for a while."
Comments: MAJ Michelson, Fred R.; ; ;
WO1 Patterson, Stephen R.; ; ;
PFC Henry, Merilan; ; ;
SGT Ethridge, Willard R.; ; ;
SP4 Hitchens, Joseph; ; ;
The source for this information was 6807PSS.AVN supplied by Les Hines
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
Please send additions or corrections to: Gary Roush Email address: webmaster@vhpa.org
Return to panel index
Return to Helicopter Pilot KIA index
Return to VHPA Home Page
Copyright © 1998 - 2023 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association
Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023