Army Reporter information
for B/3/17 CAV
1 INF DIV
7/17 CAV

For date 680330


B/3/17 CAV was a US Army unit
1 INF DIV was a US Army unit
7/17 CAV was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Binh Long Province, III Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Loc Ninh
Description: The following is an edited version of an article titled "B Troop Gunships Zap 20" dated 18 May 1968. Gunship helicopters of the 1st Avn Bde were credited with killing 20 Communist troops near the northern edge of the 1st Inf Div's AOs recently. At approximately 6:30 p.m., a FAC operating 12 miles north of Loc Ninh sighed a battalion-sized complement of NVA troops. After marking the site, he called for helicopter fire teams. B/3/17th Cav scrambled two gunships under the command of CPT Gregory Patulea, and CWO William Kane. After the gunships first pass the enemy force could be seen moving out of the area. Two more passes were made and both ships expended their entire ammunition load from miniguns, rockets, machineguns and personal M16 rifles. In an after-action reconnaissance of the engagement site, the forward air controller counted 20 enemy bodies killed in the firefight which had ended by 7:10 p.m. This issue also contained two helicopter photo captions as follows: Photo Caption - COMING IN - A member of the 7/17th Cav guides his slicks into a smoke-marked LZ. Photo by Sp5 John S. Stidham, 1st Avn Bde IO. Photo Caption - EXTRACTION - Helicopters drop in to extract elements of the 4/39th Inf after the unit had completed a reconnaissance-in-force operation near Nha Be, 10 miles south of Saigon. Photo by Sp5 David Tyler, 9th Inf Div IO.
Comments: CPT Patulea, Gregory; B/3/17 Cav pilot; ; CWO Kane, William; B/3/17 Cav pilot; ;

The source for this information was 6805AR.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