Pacific Stars and Stripes information
for CIDG
For date 700411
CIDG was a Vietnamese Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Kontum Province, II Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Dak Seang
Description: The following is an edited version of an article titled "'Dead' Copter Crew Saved by an Obit."
Kontum (S&S Vietnam Bureau) - When WO1 David Scales' helicopter gunship plunged into a wooded thicket and exploded near the embattled Dak Seang Special Forces Camp last week, word went over the radio that there were no survivors. Some of Scales' fellow pilots think the message might have saved his life and the lives of his three crewmen. "I heard a .50 caliber (machine gun) popping off a little ways away, and I knew it wasn't ours," Scales said. "Those 35 minutes on the ground in there were one damn lifetime." He said an explosive round caught the tail of his gunship as he made a third pass over an NVA stronghold. The chopper fell into the woods, and moments later it exploded - with all four crewmen safely outside. Scales said his crew chief suffered a back injury and that he suffered singed eyelashes and mustache. His fellow pilots are convinced the NVA in the Dak Seang Valley must have heard the radio message pronouncing the crew dead and decided not to go in to finish off their work. "We ripped off our unauthorized white teeshirts and started waving them," Scales said. "When you're standing there waving a shirt trying to get the attention of a helicopter, and it just moves on - well, it's an empty feeling." Scales said he was forced to resort to white teeshirts as markers because the small flare he carried in his packet malfunctioned. "I have to straighten some of my friends out when I get back to the world," Scales said. "See, the research laboratory where I was assigned before coming over here designed and tested those flares." Finally their waving shirts were spotted and they were rescued.
Comments: WO1 Scales, David; gunship pilot; ;
The source for this information was 7004pss.avn supplied by Les Hines 02/02/2000
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
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Last updated
02/03/2000
Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023