SAR report information
For date 661016
Primary service involved, US Navy
Incident reference: 66101690.BAT This information is available on CD-ROM.
North Vietnam
Description: The USN Combat SAR Study dated 20 Mar 1967 includes the events of this day as one of its illustrative SAR incidents and includes the following narrative:
A major effort was made to rescue a downed pilot who had been successfully evading the enemy for 4 days. By the time this maximum effort was made, all contact with the pilot had been lost. In this SAR incident, AAA was very light at the SAR scene; the major factor was the weather. By the time the helicopters were completing their operation, the weather had deteriorated to a 2,000-foot overcast, visibility 3 to 4 miles.
When one of the helicopters was damaged by small-arms fire, the RESCAP was unable to maintain contact during the helicopter's emergency climbout from the SAR scene. As a consequence, the RESCAP was unable to provide navigational vectors to the helicopter, which headed on a line for the Gulf of Tonkin. The helicopter's track took it over a heavy radar-directed AAA area, and it was hit twice by 37mm fire. This additional damage ultimately resulted in its loss. Had the RESCAP been able to visually escort the helicopter, exposure to the heavy AAA would have been avoided, since the RESCAP would have seen to it that the helicopter gave that particular area wideberth on its flight from the SAR scene.
This incident illustrates the importance of the RESCAP being able to keep the helicopter in sight, not only for protection from ground fire but also for navigational assistance. The AAA sites that downed the helicopter were well known to the RESCAP leader, and particular emphasis had been placed on using a route to and from the SAR scene that avoided it. Unfortunately, when the damaged rescue helicopter departed the area and was lost in the clouds, there was no way to vector it clear of any of the known AAA sites located between the SAR scene and the coast.
The source for this information was Combat SAR Study Chief of Naval Opns 20 Mar 67
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
Please send additions or corrections to: Gary Roush Email address: webmaster@vhpa.org
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Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023