More detail on this person: He did his work in
a Huey. This was the guy who missed Dennis Fujii
the CE on that downed Medevac who spent 4 days
with the ARVN in Laos and was in Jim
Lloyd˘s Charlie 158 huey that got shot up coming
out of Ranger North and crashed on Ranger South
all in Laos.. On the attached map, the Ranger
Firebases were north of 30 and 31. Note Chuck
Vehlow˘s comments. His picture is from a Feb 71
Newsweek. Two pictures of freshly inserted ARVN
on Ranger North shows the deep slopes on all
sides of that Firebase. The Ranger North picture
without the number shows Ranger South in the
background on the ridge through the purple smoke
where Jim Lloyd and David Nelson crashed with
Fujii on board.
From: Mike Sloniker
Retired Army Major James T. Newman, an air
cavalry troop commander whose personal courage
rescuing downed helicopter crews in Vietnam made
him a
legend among his troops, died Sunday, January 11,
2009, at the UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill.
His son said the cause of death was complications
associated with lung cancer. He was 73. Newman,
who was twice nominated for the Medal of Honor,
was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the
nation's second highest award for combat valor,
and numerous other medals. A former enlisted man
promoted to commissioned officer, Newman was
severely wounded flying supplies to beleaguered
ground troops on his first tour in Vietnam in
1966. He was evacuated to the United States and
spent months in a military hospital, where doctors
proposed to amputate his leg to stem the spread of
infection. He refused and eventually regained his
flight certification, although he limped the rest
of his life. The UH1 "Huey" helicopter he was
flying just feet off the ground when he was hit by
rifle fire, was repaired, returned to service and
is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of American History on the Mall
in Washington.
Newman returned to Vietnam in 1970 as
commander of C Troop, 2/17 Air Cavalry, part of
the 101st Airborne Division. The unit, nicknamed
the Condors, established a reputation for daring
reconnaissance missions over territory controlled
by North Vietnamese regulars in the northernmost
region of South Vietnam and in neighboring Laos,
where U.S. and South Vietnamese forces tried
unsuccessfully to cut the Ho Chi Minh supply trail
in early 1971. The Laos invasion, known as
Operation Lam Sanh 719, was the most dangerous
period in Vietnam for helicopters because North
Vietnamese forces were entrenched with heavy
anti-aircraft weapons designed to bring down much
faster jet fighters and bombers that routinely
attacked the trail from bases in South Vietnam and
aircraft carriers offshore. Newman won the
Distinguished Service Cross for defying withering
enemy fire to rescue the crew of a medevac
helicopter downed in Laos. He also wore the Silver
Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, four
Distinguished Flying Crosses and 23 Air Medals.
On one occasion, when two Cobra gunship
crewmen were stranded on the ground in Laos as
North Vietnamese troops closed in, Newman
steered his helicopter into a grove of trees,
cutting down saplings with the spinning main rotor
blade to clear enough room for him to land and
pull the downed crew aboard. He often remarked
that a manufacturer's representative who examined
the damaged chopper afterward determined it was
so mangled as to be unflyable. "Well," Newman
replied in his characteristic Georgia drawl, "I
flew it in here."
Charles Vehlow, a Cobra pilot who often flew cover
for Newman's command ship, said Newman "would
stop at nothing to not only complete the mission
but, more importantly, to take care of any downed
pilots or air crew members." Vehlow was quoted in
Lost Over Laos by Richard Pyle and Horst Faas, in
which some of Newman's exploits were recounted
years later. The book notes the troop commander
was recommended for the Medal of Honor, the
nation's highest award for valor, for maneuvering
his Huey through a storm of fire to retrieve four
crewmen of a U.S. Army medevac helicopter that
had been shot down at a besieged fire base in
Laos. Unknown to Newman at the time, a fifth
American was left behind. The recommendation for
the Medal of Honor was downgraded to a
Distinguished Service Cross, and Newman always
suspected it was because he inadvertently had left
someone behind. The soldier, who said he was
trapped in a bunker by incoming mortar fire, was
rescued days later and was decorated for valor in
helping South Vietnamese forces prevent their base
from being overrun. Members of Newman's troop
were fiercely loyal to their commander, at least
in part because they knew he would make every
effort to rescue them if necessary-and protect
them from superiors, too. Newman boasted that
some of his men had stolen a jet engine intended
for a general's helicopter because they needed it
to keep their own ships flying. He quietly
commended them, even knowing they had
technically committed a crime. "It always amazed
me at how so many people with so many different
backgrounds and personalities could all find
common agreement on the value of this one man,"
said Richard Frazee, one of his former pilots
after learning of Newman's death. "Jim Newman
was a man of immeasurable courage that made us
all feel invincible and hard pressed to keep up. I
was and am a better person from having known and
served with him."
In an action in the A Shau Valley on July 4, 1971,
C Troop lost three helicopters at once. One
rescued the crew of another but was hit and
crashed on its way home. All aboard were saved.
The third disappeared from the sky, and no one in
the unit knew what had happened to it. The
gunship's two-man crew was wounded, and one of
them desperately tried to call for help with a
signal mirror from his fellow crewman's survival
vest. As North Vietnamese infantrymen swarmed
over the downed chopper and searched the
surrounding high grass for its crew, Newman caught
the glint from the mirror and swooped down to pull
his men to safety with seconds to spare. The
pilot, former Warrant Officer Mike Sherrer, who
was decorated for helping save his co-pilot and
was awarded the Purple Heart for his wounds, said:
"I was an accidental hero. Jim flew into the
situation. He's my hero, and he deserves it. A
great human being."
Several of the crewmen who served under Newman
tried a few years ago to persuade the Pentagon
that he deserved the Medal of Honor for his many
acts of bravery in taking care of his troops. They
learned that he couldn't be considered for the
July 4, 1971, action because he had already been
approved for a Distinguished Flying Cross that had
never been awarded. Word of the Army's decision to
make the award had been lost in the closing days
of the war. Then-Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C.,
arranged a ceremony in November 2005 to present
Newman's long-lost medal in front of several of
Newman's men in
Fayetteville, NC, near Fort Bragg. As the United
States withdrew its forces from Vietnam, Newman
was reassigned to Fort Bragg, as executive officer
of a cavalry squadron. He retired from the Army in
March 1973 after 20 years' service. Following his
retirement, he remained in the Fayetteville area
near Fort Bragg, where he managed and owned
several used car dealerships. In 2000, Newman
was inducted into the 101st Airborne Division's
Hall of Fame at Fort Campbell, KY.
A native of Newnan, GA, he is survived by a son,
James T. "Jay" Newman of Raleigh; daughter-in-
law, Elizabeth, their two daughters, and a younger
sister, Elaine Bagby of Bremen, GA. Newman is to
be buried February 18, 2009 at Arlington National
Cemetery outside Washington with full military
honors. By coincidence, it will be 38 years to the
day after the rescue mission in Laos that led to
his first Medal of Honor nomination.
Burial information: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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