Information on U.S. Marine Corps helicopter UH-34D tail number 150568
Date: 03/31/1965
Incident number: 65033101.KIA
Unit: HMM-163
This was a Combat incident. This helicopter was REPAIRED IN THEATER
This was an Unknown mission
While on Landing Zone this helicopter was Unknown at UNK feet and UNK knots.
South Vietnam
Helicopter took 6 hits from:
Small Arms/Automatic Weapons; Gun launched non-explosive ballistic projectiles less than 20 mm in size.
Systems damaged were: ELECTRICAL SYS, INSTRUMENTS, NAV SYS, PERSONNEL
Casualties = 01 KIA, 01 WIA . .
Unknown impact on flight.
Unknown as to mission impact.
Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center Helicopter database. Also: NSC (Naval Safety Center. )
Crew Members:
P 1LT ELIASON WENDELL THEO KIA
CP 1LT WILSON DONALD R
War Story:
INCIDENT 65033101.KIA
In support of the ARVN operations, the Marine pilots flew both resupply and strike missions. The strike missions produced the only significant enemy contact experienced by Marines during this period. On 31 March, the group flew helicopter support for ARVN Operation QUYET THANG 512. A force of 17 UH-34Ds from HMM-163, two UH-34D SAR/maintenance helicopters from HMM-162, and seven U.S. Army Bell UH-1 'Huey' gunships was assigned to lift 465 troops of the ARVN 5th Airborne Battalion. The air task force was to move the ARVN paratroopers from the vicinity of Tam Ky in Quang Tin Province to a landing zone about 25 miles south of Da Nang.
Led by LTC Ewers, the helicopters encountered such heavy antiaircraft fire when they approached the landing zone that Ewers later remarked that the squadron might have flown into a trap. In the first lift, Ewers' wingman, 1LT Wendell T. Eliason was killed in the landing zone, but his co-pilot, 1LT Donald R. Wilson, managed to fly the badly damaged craft back to Da Nang. Four other helicopters in this lift also had to be returned to Da Nang for battle damage repair.
from "The 9th MEB in Vietnam"
This record was last updated on 05/25/1998
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Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023
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